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Godey's Lady's Book

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Godey's Lady's Book
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Monthly magazine for women, one of the most successful and influential periodicals in 19th-century America. Founded in 1830 in Philadelphia by Louis Antoine Godey, it became an important arbiter of fashion and etiquette. It also published works by such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry W. Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Edited by Godey until 1836, the magazine was then edited by Sara Josepha Hale until 1877. It ceased publication in 1898.

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US History Encyclopedia: Godey's Lady's Book
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In 1830 in Philadelphia, Louis Godey first published Godey's Lady's Book as the Lady's Book. In 1837 Godey bought the Ladies Magazine of Boston and made its editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, the literary editor of his periodical. Despite her publicly active role as an author, Hale's writings preached the message of separate-gendered spheres. This combination of Godey and Hale gave the magazine its high standing. During the forty years of their association, Godey's became one of the most famous and influential periodicals in America. In matters of fashions, etiquette, home economics, and standards of propriety, Godey's was the supreme arbiter. As did all similar magazines of the time, Godey's included fashion plates featuring clothing designs from Paris, then the sole fashion center. Godey's also served as the model for later home magazines. Shortly before the Civil War, it enjoyed a monthly circulation of 150,000 copies. The growing American middle class found this publication most useful. Following the sale of Godey's interests and Hale's retirement in 1877, the magazine moved to New York, where it finally expired in 1892. In later years Godey's faced competition from other periodicals, such as Ladies' Home Journal, which still publishes today.

Bibliography

Okker, Patricia. Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Women Editors. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995.

Tebbel, John William. The Magazine in America, 1741–1990. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Tonkovich, Nicole. Domesticity with a Difference: The Nonfiction of Catharine Beecher, Sarah J. Hale, Fanny Fern, and Margaret Fuller. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997.

—E. H. O'Neill/A. E.

Works: Works by Godey's Lady's Book
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1830Godey's Lady's Book. The most popular nineteenth-century women's magazine, whose circulation reaches 150,000, begins publication. Started in Philadelphia by Louise Antoine Godey (1804-1878), it contained recipes, book reviews, articles on beauty and health, and much of the sentimental and didactic writing typical of the time, as well as works by Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, Hawthorne, Poe, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is also notable for its color fashion plates and art reproduction engravings. In 1837, Godey purchased Sara Josepha Buell Hale's Boston Ladies' Magazine and made Hale editor, launching Godey's most successful years. After Hale's retirement in 1877 and Godey's death in 1878, the magazine moved to New York. It folded in 1898.

Wikipedia: Godey's Lady's Book
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Cover from June 1867 issue

Godey's Lady's Book, alternatively known as Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, was a United States magazine which was published in Philadelphia and popular among women during the 19th century. In the 1860s Godey's considered itself the "queen of monthlies".

Contents

Overview

The magazine was published by Louis A. Godey from Philadelphia for 48 years (1830–1878) (it was published by someone else after Godey died). Godey intended to take advantage of the popularity of gift books, many of which were marketed specifically to women.[1] Each issue contained poetry, articles, and engravings created by prominent writers and other artists of the time. Sarah Josepha Hale (author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb") was its editor from 1837 until 1877 and only published original, American manuscripts. Although the magazine contained work by both men and women, Hale published three special issues which only included work done by women.

When Hale started at Godey's, the magazine had a circulation of ten thousand subscribers. Two years later, it jumped to 40,000 and by 1860 had 150,000 subscribers.[2]

In 1845, Louis Godey began copyrighting each issue of the magazine to prevent other magazine and newspaper editors from pirating their texts. This move, a first in America, was criticized by editors at the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. They called it a "narrowly selfish course" and that Godey would "rue it bitterly".[3]

The magazine was expensive; subscribers paid $3 per year (for comparison, The Saturday Evening Post was only $2 per year).[4] Even so, it was the most popular journal in its day.[5] Under Hale's editorship, the list of subscribers to Godey's reached 150,000.[6] Hale took advantage of her role and became influential as an arbiter of American taste.[7] She used some of her influence to further several causes for women. For example, she created a regular section with the heading "Employment for Women" beginning in 1852 to discuss women in the workforce.[8]

In general, Godey disliked discussing political issues or controversial topics in his magazine. In the 1850s, he dismissed Sara Jane Lippincott ("Grace Greenwood") as assistant editor for denouncing slavery in the National Era. Lippincott publicly denounced Godey in response and Godey later recanted.[9] Nevertheless, he forbade his journal from taking a position during the American Civil War. In fact, during the war, the magazine made no acknowledgment of it whatsoever and readers looked elsewhere for war-related information. In the process, Godey's lost about one-third of its subscribers.[2]

Godey sold the magazine in 1877 before his death in 1878.[10] The magazine ceased publication in 1898.

Contents

The magazine is best known for the hand-tinted fashion plate that appeared at the start of each issue, which provide a record of the progression of women's dress. Publisher Louis Godey showed off that in 1859, it cost $105,200 to produce the Lady's Book, with the coloring of the fashion-plates costing $8,000.[11] Almost every issue also included an illustration and pattern with measurements for a garment to be sewn at home. A sheet of music for piano provided the latest waltz, polka or galop.

Edgar Allan Poe had one of his earliest short stories "The Visionary" (later renamed "The Assignation") printed in Godey's in 1834. In 1844, he published several other works: "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" (April), "The Oblong Box" (September), and "Thou Art the Man" (November).[12] Other contributors included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Washington Irving, James Kirke Paulding, William Gilmore Simms, and Nathaniel Parker Willis.[10]

Influence

Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle 1848, adapted for Godey's Lady's Book, December 1850

A woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in the Illustrated London News December 1848, was copied in Godey's at Christmas 1850. Their version removed the Queen's crown and Prince Albert's mustache to remake the engraving into an American scene.[13] The republished image was the first widely-circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America, and Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria shorn of their royal trappings "the first influential American Christmas tree".[14] Folk-culture historian Alfred Shoemaker summed up that "in all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850-60 than Godey's Lady's Book". The image was reprinted in 1860 and, by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in the United States.[13]

As editor, Sarah Hale also used her editorial space and influence to advocate for the establishment of a national Thanksgiving holiday.

See also

References

  1. ^ Pattee, Fred Lewis. The First Century of American Literature: 1770–1870. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1966: 392.
  2. ^ a b Parker, Gail Underwood. More Than Petticoats: Remarkable New Hampshire Women. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2009: 32. ISBN 9780762740024
  3. ^ Moss, Sidney P. Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Literary Milieu. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962: 23.
  4. ^ Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. The Literary History of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 239.
  5. ^ Reynolds, David F. "Poe's Art of Transformation: 'The Cask of Amontillado' in Its Cultural Context," as collected in The American Novel: New Essays on Poe's Major Tales, Kenneth Silverman, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1993: 101. ISBN 0521422433
  6. ^ Pattee, Fred Lewis. The First Century of American Literature: 1770–1870. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1966: 495.
  7. ^ Douglas, Ann. The Feminization of American Culture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977: 94. ISBN 0-394-40532-3
  8. ^ O'Connor, Thomas H. Civil War Boston: Home Front and Battlefield. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997: 8. ISBN 1-55553-318-3
  9. ^ Bradley, Patricia. Women and the Press: The Struggle for Equality. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2005: 30. ISBN 9780810123137
  10. ^ a b Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. The Literary History of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 231.
  11. ^ Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. The Literary History of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 232.
  12. ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001.
  13. ^ a b Shoemaker, Alfred Lewis. Christmas in Pennsylvania: a Folk-Cultural Study. Edition 40. Stackpole Books, 1999: 52–53. ISBN 0811703282
  14. ^ Marling, Karal Ann. Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday. Harvard University Press, 2000: 4. ISBN 0674003187

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Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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