Popular Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and the Literary Marketplace

"Wide-ranging, admirably researched, and accessible, this volume of essays locates women writers firmly in the center of the hurly-burly of literary and economic developments that made up the literary marketplace in nineteenth-century America."-Dr. Joanne Dobson, independent scholar and novelist."This remarkable collection by editors Earl Yarington and Mary De Jong contributes richly to the ongoing recovery of the works and methods of highly popular American women writers of the nineteenth century. Augmenting the body of scholarship on professional women writers, these essays showcase the ways in which best-selling female authors met the demands of a burgeoning literary marketplace. This collection provides striking insights into an industry that was anything but sedate or genteel. Sensitive to hair-trigger shifts in the marketplace, nineteenth-century women writers refined their strategies for meeting consumer desires. Professional writers like Stowe, Hale, Warner, Holmes and Southworth are recognized here for their attunement to audience trends, tastes and temperament. They responded with a prodigious output of novels, short fiction, non-fiction and serialized features that bolstered the American publishing industry. The contributors to this much-needed volume have succeeded in re-acquainting later generations with the extensive output and skilled professionalism of writers whose works once covered parlor library tables. This is an important scholarly achievement."-Susan I. Gatti, Indiana University of PAIncludes essays on Lydia Maria Child, Elizabeth Oakes Smith,Grace Greenwood, Anna Warner, E. D. E. N. Southworth, Alcott, Grace King, Frances Harper, Chopin, Winnifred Eaton, and other successful authors.