As editor for the popular Ladies’ Magazine (later renamed Godey’s Lady’s Book), Hale earned widespread influence with American women from 1828 to 1877. She began writing after her husband died, when she was left pregnant and with four other children. After having a book and novel published, she was invited by John L. Blake to edit Ladies’ Magazine. The women writers she accepted as editor helped to promote women as professional writers. The Magazine included correspondence, stories, poetry, music, and fashion plates.

In some of Hale’s most notable editorials, she took up the cause to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Her persuasive writing campaign eventually convinced Abraham Lincoln to officially declare Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War.

Hamilton, an essayist, journalist, and fiction writer, was born Mary Abby Dodge in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and lived as a school teacher and governess in New England and Washington, D.C. In the late 1850s, she began publishing for the anti-slavery paper, the National Era, under the pen name, Gail Hamilton. She went on publish books on women’s rights, politics, religion, and children’s subjects. In 1867, she sued her publisher, Ticknor and Fields, for deliberately underpaying her in relation to the industry norm. Although she was unsuccessful, she "made a significant contribution to the history of the professional (women) writers, and she exposed the Gentleman Publisher’s market for what it really was: a relationship based on power, even when conducted as a friendship" (Coultrap-McQuin).

Woman’s Wrongs: A Counter-Irritant. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868. First edition.

Dodge wrote Woman’s Wrongs as a critical response to Reverend John Todd’s Woman’s Rights (1867).

Woman’s Worth and Worthlessness. The Complement to "A New Atmosphere." New York: Harper & Brothers, 1872. First edition.

Matilda Charlotte Houstoun, 1815?-1892

Houstoun was born into the British upper class. Her mother was the daughter of a wealthy baronet and her father was Deputy Surveyor of Royal Parks. Much to Houstoun’s annoyance, she was educated by a Welsh governess who forbade her to read novels. Ironically, she went on to write over twenty books, including novels and travel literature. Texas and the Gulf of Mexico is an account of the year she spent sailing around the Americas with her husband on their yacht.

Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; or Yachting in the New World. London: John Murray, 1844.

Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894

Christina Rossetti was the youngest of four children of Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian exile and Dante scholar. Christina’s siblings chose to pursue artistic and literary careers. Her brother Dante Gabriel, painter and poet, founded the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, a group promoting beauty in art and a harkening back to more primitive, medieval themes. The other two children, William Michael and Maria Francesca, were also published writers. Christina began publishing poems in D.G. Rossetti’s Pre-Raphaelite journal, The Germ (1848). Her first collection, Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), has been considered the first literary success of the Pre-Raphaelites. She went on to publish both for children and adults throughout her life. She was a devout Christian, and religious themes are often central to her writing.

Born in East Devon to a poor farming family, Joanna Southcott spent a majority of her life living normally as a domestic servant and upholsterer. However, at age forty-two, she turned prophetess. Southcott began to interpret a rapidly changing England, one of industrial growth and subsequent social unrest, as a sign of God’s wrath. "On Christmas 1791, she joined the Wesleyans. On Easter Sunday 1792, she predicted that the locusts of Abaddon would be loosed upon the world." Warnings and solutions to save the world came to her in a voice. In response, she took her messages and life’s savings to a printer and published her first book, The Strange Effects of Faith, in 1801. She soon acquired thousands of followers and set up a ministry in London. She published sixty-five books before her death in 1814. (Rosenberg)

The Trial of Joanna Southcott, During Seven Days, Which Commenced on the Fifth, and Ended on the Eleventh of December, 1804. At the Neckinger House, Bermondsey, Near London. London: Printed by S. Rousseau, sld by E.J. Field, W. Symonds, and the Miss Eveleighs, 1804.

Southcott went to trial to defend herself against claims that she was an impostor.

A Dispute between the Woman and the Powers of Darkness. London: Marchant and Galabin, 1813. Second edition.

In this seven-day long exchange between Southcott and Satan, or Satan’s friends, Satan dares to curse both God and Southcott. She eventually persuades the evil forces to return to God.

Southcott predicted that she would give birth to a second messiah called "Shiloh." Even though she reportedly died without ever having given birth, her followers continued to believe in her prophetic voice. Some speculated that a child had been born, but was immediately sent to heaven and would return later.

Spyri was born in Hirzel, Switzerland, and spent her life around Hirzel and Zurich. She began publishing at age forty-three out of a desire to contribute money to the Franco-Prussian war. Altogether, Spyri wrote sixteen books, which include novels and short story collections. Although her work was mainly for children’s entertainment, she also tried to teach adults how to educate children. She is best known for Heidi (1880-1881), the classic tale of the Swiss orphan taken from her grandfather’s alpine hut to live as a companion in the Sesemann’s confining and stern Frankfurt household. The Heidi books featured on exhibit are part of the Gustine Weaver Collection, UNT Libraries, Rare Book Room.

Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning: A Story for Children and Those Who Love Children. Trans. Louise Brooks. Boston: DeWolfe & Fiske Company, c1884. One of the first editions translated into English.

Heidi. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1899.

Heidi: A Story for Girls. Trans. H.A. Melcon. New York: A.L. Burt Company, 1901.

Heidi. Trans. Elisabeth P. Stork. Philadelphia and London: J.B. Lippincott Company, c1915.

Heidi. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1927. Illustrated by Constance Whittemore.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896

Although best known for her antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe also wrote nine other novels, short fiction, and nonfiction. Her nonfiction includes her travel sketches, published as Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. The book accounts her travels starting in 1853, when Stowe accepted an invitation to Europe to escape the criticism she received from the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. On her tour, she visited England, Scotland, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium. Sunny Memories was well liked and often used as a guidebook for travelers.

Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company; New York: J.C. Derby, 1854. 2 vols.