Blue Pencils & Hidden Hands: Women Editing Periodicals, 1830-1910

During the long nineteenth century, American women editors of magazines, then the dominant mass medium for information in the United States, exerted a vital force over a burgeoning community of readers and were crucial in redefining women's identities and roles in the nation's changing social and cultural landscape. This collection of original critical essays builds on a growing body of scholarship to explore the varied editorial practices of women editors from diverse race, class, and ethnic backgrounds. Examining a broad spectrum of periodicals, including school newspapers, children's and fashion magazines, and activist political journals, the contributors delve into three major areas: women apprentices in magazine publishing; women who drew on their editorial experience to create other forms of literary, artistic, and activist expressions; and women who established careers as editors. Enriching the essays are selections from the periodicals themselves, revealing how Ann S. Stephens, Frances Wright, Pauline Hopkins, Kate Field, Zitkala-Sa, and others wielded their editorial pen to shape public opinion about such issues as woman suffrage, abolitionism, and domestic violence.