Domesticating the Sensation Novelist: Ellen Price Wood as Author and Editor of the Argosy Magazine

In Edging Women Out, Gaye Tuchman and Nina Fortin claim that by the 1880s male critics and authors had "actively redefined the nature of a good novel and a great author" effectively "edging women out" of the profession in which they thrived during the 1860s and 1870s (8). Tuchman and Fortin base their claims, in part, on their analysis of the archives of Macmillan Publishing company from 1867 to 1917. They found that 62% of fiction manuscripts were submitted by women at the beginning of this period, whereas only 48% of them were submitted by women at the end of the period (60).² Tuchman and Fortin do not consider the effects that novel serialization in family literary magazines – which peaked during the 1860s and 1870s – had on the predominance of women novelists, but the trend they identify corresponds directly with the rise and fall of this magazine genre.

When I use the term family literary magazine, I am referring to that class of magazines typically called shilling monthlies in England, including Macmillan's (1859), The Cornhill (1860), Temple Bar (1860), St. James's (1861), The Argosy (1865), Tinsley's (1867), and St. Paul's (1867). I have coined the term "family literary magazine" because, in my estimation, it more accurately describes the attributes of these magazines than the simple designation of their price implies.³ Family literary magazines were aimed at culturally educating a broadly middle-class audience that included women. These magazines conceived of women as important participants in and disseminators of the nation's culture and were very amenable to women writers, editors, and readers alike. In fact, I argue that this periodical genre contributed greatly to the successes women achieved as professional writers during the Victorian period. A number of influential women edited family literary magazines, including Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Belgravia Magazine), Emily Davies and Emily Faithfull (Victoria Magazine), Anna Maria Hall (St. James's Magazine), and Ellen Price Wood (the Argosy Magazine). Their control over these periodicals and the higher rate of publications by women featured in them contributed to an atmosphere in which women writers could succeed and, indeed, have an impact on the nation's cultural values.⁴

As Susan Coultrap-McQuinn claims in her study of authorship in nine-teenth-century America, another reason for the increasing numbers of women writers at mid-century was that "the image and values of the Gentleman Publisher provided a business environment that was relatively more comfortable for women writers than many other types of business situations might have been" since it emphasized personal relationships and moral guardianship rather than capitalistic and competitive business tactics (47). Women on both sides of the Atlantic were thus able to form relationships with publishers that Coultrap-McQuinn describes as "benevolently paternalistic" and "loyal" within an atmosphere that was productive for "women who could successfully integrate their female values and behaviors into the pursuit of their literary careers" (xii). Since professionals necessarily commodified themselves, professionalism was hardly available to a "proper" woman. Thus, like her American counterparts, Ellen Price Wood broke into publishing by cultivating an image of herself as an amateur, using the "gentlemanly" approach of her editor Harrison Ainsworth to her advantage. Wood played along with Ainsworth and others in the industry by presenting herself as a hobbyist, emphasizing her roles as a proper wife and mother, and insisting that her works be published under the name of Mrs. Henry Wood, even after the death of her husband. Though Wood played up her womanliness and presumed amateurism early on in her career, she ultimately promoted her work in a highly professional way, developing a behind-the-scenes professional identity. By the time Wood purchased the Argosy Magazine to serve as a showcase for her own fiction, she was ready to translate her "hidden" professional identity into a very public position as the magazine's editor and primary contributor. In this essay I argue that Wood craftily used her gentlewomanly demeanor to establish her career and obtain a position as editor of her own family literary magazine...