A Fanny Fern Reader: Selections by a Pioneering Nineteenth-Century Woman Journalist

The most complete collection of works by the nineteenth century's most famous and groundbreaking woman journalist. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the highest paid and most famous newspaper writer in the US was a woman known to the world as Fanny Fern, the nom de plume of Sara Payson Willis. A Fanny Fern Reader features a selection of Fern's columns, mostly from her years as a weekly columnist for the New York Ledger, along with an introduction that shares the remarkable story of Fern's perseverance and success as a woman in a male-dominated profession. For readers in her own time, Fern's frank and unbridled social commentary and boldly satirical voice made her a household name. Fern's subversive and witty commentary about social mores, gender roles, childhood, authorship, and family life transcend time and continue to resonate with and entertain readers today. A Fanny Fern Reader is the most extensive collection of Fern's newspaper writings to date and includes several works that have been out of print for over a century, making this author's writing on a wide range of issues accessible for readers within and outside of classrooms and academic settings.

Table of Contents:
Introduction I. "These are some of the annoyances of authors; but, verily, they have their rewards too": On Authorship and Authors Borrowed Light, from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, 1853 Mrs. Adolphus Smith Sporting the "Blue Stocking," from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, Second Series, 1854 American Female Literature, Letter from Fanny Fern, June 16, 1854 My Old Ink-Stand and I; or, the First Article in the New House, July 19, 1856 Answers to Fern Correspondents, November 15, 1856 To Literary Aspirants, December 6, 1856 Leaves of Grass, May 10, 1856 Charlotte Brontë, June 6, 1857 Facts for Unjust Critics, June 13, 1857 To Writers, August 22, 1857 Fresh Leaves, by Fanny Fern, October 10, 1857 International Copyright, November 28, 1857 A Rainy Day, February 20, 1858 A Leaf for Paul Pry, June 19, 1858 A Sketch for Paul Pry, March 26, 1859 Pleasures of Authorship, February 23, 1861 Answers to My Own Correspondents, March 2, 1861 Unscrupulous Authors, April 20, 1861 Literary Beginners, March 26, 1864 Who Shall Decide When Doctors Disagree, October 26, 1867 Punishments and Rewards of Authors, March 2, 1872 II. "Mr. Chairman, I rise to say, that there are no faults of sex; that there exist only faults of individuals": On Society's Rules and Roles for Men and Women Sober Husbands, from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, Second Series, 1854 Hungry Husbands, from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, Second Series, 1854 Feminine Waiters at Hotels, from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, Second Series, 1854 The Last Bachelor Hours of Tom Pax, January 19, 1856 Tom Pax's Conjugal Soliloquy, February 9, 1856 Summer Travel, July 12, 1856 Moral Molasses; or, Too Sweet by Half, October 4, 1856 A Gauntlet for the Men, February 21, 1857 Lady Doctors, April 11, 1857 On Voices and Beards, April 3, 1858 A Chapter for the Brethren, May 22, 1858 Hear! Hear!, June 12, 1858 Gimcrack Furniture, December 18, 1858 A Hint for Shopping Husbands, March 19, 1859 "Oh, the Extravagance of Women!," July 16, 1859 Why Rosa Bonheur Don't Marry, December 31, 1859 Male-Mischief, February 25, 1860 Books of "Advice to Women," March 17, 1860 "Pencilings by the Way," March 31, 1860 Guilty or Not Guilty, April 7, 1860 A Hue and Cry from the Other Side of the House, May 5, 1860 Male-Gossips, July 28, 1860 What Constitutes a Handsome Man, March 16, 1861 A Stone for a Glass House, April 27, 1861 A Bit of Injustice, June 8, 1861 Lady Letter-Writers, June 15, 1861 Tell Us, August 31, 1861 An Offer, March 22, 1862 Tit for Tat-Tling, March 29, 1862 Which?, May 24, 1862 Back Track on the Platform, March 30, 1872 III. "These are bold words; but they are needed words": On Women's Rights The Weaker Vessel, from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, 1853 Has a Mother a Right to Her Children?, April 4, 1857 A Word on the Other Side, October 24, 1857 "Where Have I Been, and What Have I Seen?," December 19, 1857 Is Not Woman Capable of It?, December 26, 1857 Lady-Skating, March 20, 1858 "What Is My Opinion about Woman Voting?," May 29, 1858 "Independence," July 30, 1859 Was She a Heroine, or a Criminal?, October 8, 1859 Shall Women Vote?, June 30, 1860 On the Fence, November 9, 1861 A Public Evil, February 1, 1862 The Women of 1867, August 10, 1867 Woman's Qualification to Vote, May 23, 1868 Woman's Millenium, from Ginger-Snaps, 1870 Women on the Platform, from Ginger-Snaps, 1870 Clubs for the Working Men, March 16, 1872 IV. "I wish I was mother to the whole of you!": On Behalf of Children Children's Rights, from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-Folio, 1853 Children in 1853, from Little Ferns for Fanny's Little Friends, 1854 The "Favorite" Child, February 28, 1857 Parent and Child; or, Which Shall Rule, May 9, 1857 The Child Whom Nobody Can Do Anything With, January 23, 1858 To My Little Ledger Friends, April 10, 1858 A Word for the Children, July 3, 1858 A Whisper to Mothers, April 16, 1859 A Nursery Thought, April 14, 1860 A Whisper to Mothers, August 25, 1860 How to Look at It, May 4, 1861 A Word to Parents, July 27, 1861 Mercy for Children, November 30, 1861 The Use of Grandmothers, May 23, 1863 A Chapter for Mothers, May 30, 1863 A Chapter for Parents, August 29, 1863 A Grandmother's Dilemma, June 30, 1866 What Childhood Should Be, October 19, 1867 Grandmothers, June 15, 1872 How to Put the Children to Bed, from Caper-Sauce, 1872 ON SCHOOL REFORM A Word to Parents and Teachers, March 14, 1857 One More — "Last Word," October 29, 1859 Philanthropy in the Right Direction, March 24, 1860 The Children's Day, June 2, 1860 Writing "Compositions," June 9, 1860 At Last, November 24, 1860 Half a Loaf Better Than No Bread, February 22, 1862 A Fatal Error, February 11, 1865 Will Parents Take Heed?, from Caper-Sauce, 1872 V. "How I longed to sit down in those little tents, and talk with those heroes of Gettysburg": Select Commentary about the Civil War The Time to Speak, June 1, 1861 Baby-Regiments, August 24, 1861 Election-Day, December 28, 1861 Holidays and Holy-People, January 11, 1862 A Fifth Avenue Scene, July 4, 1863 Our City Camps, September 26, 1863 The Chief Obstacle to Enlistments, March 5, 1864 Unwritten History of the War, from Folly as It Flies, 1868 The History of Our Late War, from Ginger-Snaps, 1870 VI. "More than angelic are these soul-responses": On Grief, Suffering, and Compassion New York, from Fresh Leaves, 1857 A Word to Shop-Keepers, June 20, 1857 Mother's Room, August 15, 1857 What Shall We Name the Baby?, August 22, 1857 To Young Ladies, December 5, 1857 What Came of a Violet, May 8, 1858 Blackwell's Island Number I, August 14, 1858 Blackwell's Island, Number III, August 28, 1858 Sympathy; or, Straws for the Drowning, May 21, 1859 Night and Sleep, December 24, 1859 Vivid Life, August 3, 1861 Whose Business Is It?, September 28, 1861 Poisoned Arrows, May 10, 1862 How They Look at It, May 30, 1863 VII. "New York, with all thy faults, I love thee still": On Life in the City Greenwood and Mount Auburn, September 6, 1856 Knickerbocker and Tri-Mountain, October 11, 1856 Knickerbocker and Tri-Mountain, Number 2, October 18, 1856 Living in Brooklyn, January 2, 1858 Why I Like New York, June 5, 1858 The Rival Cities, December 18, 1858 A Phase of City Life, October 22, 1859 A Housekeeper's Views on Street-Cleaning, December 3, 1859 Dear Crazy Gotham, June 22, 1861 New York Parks, September 21, 1861 Central Park and Boston Common, November 16, 1867 About Some Things in New York Which Have Interested Me, from Folly as It Flies, 1868 A Morning at Stewart's, from Folly as It Flies, 1868 The Working-Girls of New York, from Folly as It Flies, 1868 GETTING AWAY FROM THE CITY Trip to the Caatskills, Number One, September 12, 1857 Trip to the Caatskills, Number Four, October 3, 1857 Notes of a Summer Tour, Number VI, October 9, 1858 A Broad Hint to New Haven, August 3, 1867 VIII. "Coats and trowsers have the best of it everywhere": On Gendered Fashion A Law More Nice than Just, July 10, 1858 A Law More Nice than Just, Number II, July 17, 1858 Give It Up, January 7, 1860 A Voice from the Skating Pond, February 1, 1862 Sense and Shoes, February 8, 1862 Fashion Edicts, April 26, 1862 What May Be Done in the Country, September 14, 1867 IX. "What a pity all editors are not

About the Author :
Emily E. VanDette is Professor of English at the State University of New York at Fredonia. She is the author of Sibling Romance in American Fiction, 1835–1900 and lives in Fredonia, New York.

Review :
"This collection would fill an important scholarly void by providing an organized collection of Fanny Fern's writings, divided helpfully into topical categories. Scholars and readers no longer will need to search through the disparate sources to find Fern's writings about various subjects. It could be used in American literature course, women's literature course, history courses, women's history courses, journalism courses, and American Studies courses." — Debra Brenegan, author of Shame the Devil: A Novel "Offers academics in the fields of American periodicals and journalism history, as well as lay readers, a selection of writings from a compelling nineteenth-century writer who was perhaps the best-known woman columnist of her era. It would work well in undergraduate courses in journalism, American periodicals, and women’s literature." — Cynthia Patterson, Associate Professor of English, University of South Florida "VanDette's A Fanny Fern Reader offers us a beautifully comprehensive volume of essays from Fanny Fern, who was nineteenth-century America's ruling titan of wit among newspaper columnists, and the highest paid of all of them … And this stunning volume of essays does her justice, providing a modern context for reading the many themes across her oeuvre … This book could be used in history courses, women's and gender studies courses, children's literature, journalism, early American literature, 19C American literature, [and] women writers…" — Christina Katopodis, CUNY Humanities Alliance, Graduate Center, CUNY