Wells, Jonathan Daniel,

Women writers and journalists in the nineteenth-century south / Jonathan Daniel Wells. - New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011. - xii, 244p. ;

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Foundations. Reading, literary magazines, and the debate over gender equality -- Education, gender, and community in the nineteenth-century South -- Women journalists and writers in the Old South. Periodicals and literary culture -- Female authors and magazine writing -- Antebellum women editors and journalists -- Women journalists and writers in the new South -- New South periodicals and a new literary culture -- Writing a new South for women -- Postwar women and professional journalism -- Epilogue.

"The first study to focus on white and black women journalists and writers both before and after the Civil War, this book offers fresh insight into southern intellectual life, the fight for women's rights, and gender ideology. Based on fresh research into southern magazines and newspapers, this book seeks to shift scholarly attention away from novelists and toward the rich and diverse periodical culture of the South between 1820 and 1900. Magazines were of central importance to the literary culture of the South because the region lacked the publishing centers that could produce large numbers of books. Easily portable, newspapers and magazines could be sent through the increasingly sophisticated postal system for relatively low subscription rates. The mix of content, from poetry to short fiction and literary reviews to practical advice and political news, meant that periodicals held broad appeal. As editors, contributors, correspondents, and reporters in the nineteenth century, southern women entered traditionally male bastions when they embarked on careers in journalism. In so doing, they opened the door to calls for greater political and social equality at the turn of the twentieth century"--

9781107012660 (hardback)


Women in journalism--History--Southern States
Journalism--History--Southern States
Periodicals--Publishing--History--Southern States
Women's periodicals, American--History--Southern States
Literature publishing--History--Southern States
Women--Press coverage--History--Southern States
American literature--Women authors--History and criticism.--Southern States
American literature--History and criticism.
Journalism and literature--History--United States

810.992870975