"Every Body Sees the Theft": Fanny Fern and Literary Proprietorship in Antebellum America

Homestead, Melissa J.

doi:10.2307/3185477

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…When Ruth opts for more promising work as a writer for John Walter, he vows to "get out a cheap edition of [Ruth's] articles, and spoil the sale of [her] book" (Fern, 1855(Fern, /1997. Both editors' management of their writers reveals a top-down relation and their desire to, as Homestead (2001) succinctly puts it, "control the reproduction and circulation of [Ruth's] newspaper's sketches" (p. 221). Fern emphasizes that working under these two editors, Ruth, though a very talented writer, is barely able to support herself.…”

Section: Ruth's Navigation Of the Literary Marketplacementioning

confidence: 99%

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Refashioning the Domestic Novel: Literary Form and Fanny Fern’s Biopolitical Imagination in Ruth Hall

Pruttipurk

2021

THTS

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Drawing upon the Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse (2008, 2018) explanation of the form of early American novels, Emily Steinlight's (2018) concept of "demographic surplus" and Michel Foucault's (1978Foucault's ( /2007 concept of "population" and "mechanisms of security," this paper seeks to extend the discussion of the importance of the presence of the population in Ruth Hall and Fanny Fern's (1855/1997) imagination of a form of government suitable for mid-nineteenth century America. By doing so, I suggest that Ruth Hall can be considered a novel that shares the legacy of the literary tradition that was once believed to be exclusive to male writers.

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Section: Ruth's Navigation Of the Literary Marketplacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…She offers understanding and consolation through the shared personal experience that she discussed in her articles. Homestead (2001) notes that by not presenting the content of Ruth's writing but instead providing the various responses it elicits, Fern stresses Ruth's "true nature" as reflected by her readers (pp. 226-227).…”

Section: A Hubmentioning

confidence: 99%

Refashioning the Domestic Novel: Literary Form and Fanny Fern’s Biopolitical Imagination in Ruth Hall

Pruttipurk

2021

THTS

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“…Earlier studies, notably those by Michael Newbury (1997) and Melissa J. Homestead (2001), provide useful insights into the nature of the print industry in shaping Fern's authorial persona. However, these studies are primarily preoccupied with the American literary marketplace.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“A Nondescript Monster”: Fanny Fern in Transatlantic Print Culture

Alhammad¹

2021

VPFJ

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Fanny Fern (real name Sara Payson Willis Parton) was one of the most profitable American columnists and novelists of the mid-nineteenth century. Fern sustained her celebrity status largely through unauthorised reprints of her articles in American and British papers. Consequently, her public image was for the most part constructed through those reprinted articles, which were usually framed by speculations about her private life. This article examines the implications and limitations of Fern’s efforts to stabilise the dissemination of her public image in periodicals by using the relatively more stable form of the book. As a celebrity, she had limited control over the way she was publicly represented. As a woman in the public sphere, she was particularly vulnerable to slander and libel. The circulation of a spurious biography entitled The Life and Beauties of Fanny Fern (1855), alongside her sanctioned autobiographical novel Ruth Hall, profited from her literary brand while simultaneously undermining it. Examining how these competing narratives about Fern’s private life – one fictionalised, one unauthorised – shaped her literary reputation at home and in England, this paper argues that textual representations as well as material market choices, including book bindings and advertising techniques, shaped authorship in the increasingly commercialised transatlantic literary market of the mid-century in ways that both benefited and imperilled the female writer.

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Renovating Domesticity inRuth Hall, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, andOur Nig

Larson

2009

Women's Studies

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"Every Body Sees the Theft": Fanny Fern and Literary Proprietorship in Antebellum America

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Refashioning the Domestic Novel: Literary Form and Fanny Fern’s Biopolitical Imagination in Ruth Hall

Refashioning the Domestic Novel: Literary Form and Fanny Fern’s Biopolitical Imagination in Ruth Hall

“A Nondescript Monster”: Fanny Fern in Transatlantic Print Culture

Renovating Domesticity inRuth Hall, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, andOur Nig

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