A01=Linda Peterson
Alice Meynell
Allusion
Anna Mary Howitt
Apprenticeship
Arnold Bennett
Aurora Leigh
Author
Author_Linda Peterson
Autobiography
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Biography
Bookselling
Career
Caroline Norton
Category=DSBF
Charles Dickens
Charlotte Bronte
Coventry Patmore
Criticism
Eliza Lynn Linton
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Gaskell
Epigraph (literature)
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Femininity
Fiction
Frances Power Cobbe
Fraser's Magazine
Genre
Genre fiction
George Eliot
George Meredith
Hannah More
Harriet Martineau
Household Words
Howitt
Illustration
Jane Eyre
Journalism
Lecture
Life writing
Literature
Margaret Oliphant
Mary Cholmondeley
Mary Howitt
Memoir
Mrs.
Narrative
Newspaper
Novel
Novelist
Poet
Poetry
Political economy
Preface
Printing
Professionalization
Prose
Pseudonym
Publication
Publishing
Rhoda Broughton
Robert Browning
Romantic poetry
S. (Dorst novel)
Satire
Thomas Carlyle
Victorian era
Victorian literature
Vocation (poem)
Women's writing (literary category)
Writer
Writing
Product details
- ISBN 9780691140179
- Weight: 567g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 26 Jul 2009
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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During the nineteenth century, women authors for the first time achieved professional status, secure income, and public fame. How did these women enter the literary profession; meet the demands of editors, publishers, booksellers, and reviewers; and achieve distinction as "women of letters"? Becoming a Woman of Letters examines the various ways women writers negotiated the market realities of authorship, and looks at the myths and models women writers constructed to elevate their place in the profession. Drawing from letters, contracts, and other archival material, Linda Peterson details the careers of various women authors from the Victorian period. Some, like Harriet Martineau, adopted the practices of their male counterparts and wrote for periodicals before producing a best seller; others, like Mary Howitt and Alice Meynell, began in literary partnerships with their husbands and pursued independent careers later in life; and yet others, like Charlotte Bronte, and her successors Charlotte Riddell and Mary Cholmondeley, wrote from obscure parsonages or isolated villages, hoping an acclaimed novel might spark a meteoric rise to fame.
Peterson considers these women authors' successes and failures--the critical esteem that led to financial rewards and lasting reputations, as well as the initial successes undermined by publishing trends and pressures. Exploring the burgeoning print culture and the rise of new genres available to Victorian women authors, this book provides a comprehensive account of the flowering of literary professionalism in the nineteenth century.
Linda H. Peterson is the Niel Gray, Jr. Professor of English at Yale University. Her books include "Victorian Women's Autobiography: The Poetics and Politics of Life Writing".
