New Media and the Rise of the Popular Woman Writer, 1832–1860

• Explores the relationship between the rise of new media during the early decades of the Victorian era and the opportunities that arose for women to write for emerging mass-market audiences
• Brings to light archival materials that illuminate the working lives of women writers, 1832-60
• Situates canonical women writers within emerging media and introduces the careers of a variety of lesser known authors of the period

This book highlights the integral relationship between the rise of the popular woman writer and the expansion and diversification of newspaper, book and periodical print media during a period of unprecedented change, 1832–1860. It includes discussions of canonical women writers such as Felicia Hemans, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, as well as lesser-known figures such as Eliza Cook and Frances Brown. It also examines the ways in which women readers actively responded to a robust popular print culture by creating scrapbooks and engaging in forms of celebrity worship. At the same time, it demonstrates how Victorian women’s participation in popular print culture anticipates our own engagement with new media in the twenty-first century.