Eliza Anderson Godefroy

Last updated

Eliza Anderson Godefroy (pen name, Beatrice Ironside) is believed to be the first woman to edit a general-interest magazine in the United States. At age 26, from 1806 to 1807, she served as the founder and editor of a Baltimore publication called The Observer. [1]

Contents

Early years.

Eliza Anderson was the daughter of Baltimore physician Dr. John Crawford.

Personal life

In 1799, at 19, Eliza married local merchant Henry Anderson. Their time together would be short as Anderson abandoned Eliza and their infant daughter by 1801. In 1805, Anderson accompanied her friend and fellow Baltimorean Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte on a journey to Europe in a vain attempt to convince Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize her marriage to his youngest brother, Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte. [2]

Career

After Anderson returned to Baltimore in November 1805, she joined The Companion and Weekly Miscellany, which was in circulation from November 1804 to October 1806. In September 1806, Anderson became the editor. It is unclear what her exact contributions to the publication were because pseudonyms were commonly used. Shortly thereafter, she decided to close The Companion and start a new magazine, The Observer, that would cover a broader range of subjects and adopt a more satirical tone. [3]

Initially, the editor's gender was hidden from the public. However, after a few weeks, Anderson adopted the pen name "Beatrice Ironside" for her editorials. [4] Anderson addressed the matter of her gender head-on, acknowledging that "much curiosity had been excited to know, what manner of woman our female editor may be" and introduced herself to her readership. [5]

While a few widows had taken on the role of editing or publishing newspapers after the death of their husbands, the idea of a female editor was novel in 1807. [6] Secondary sources on the history of women editors overlooked Anderson, identifying the first woman to edit a magazine as Mary Clarke Carr, who published the Intellectual Regale, or Ladies Tea Tray, in Philadelphia beginning in 1814—seven years after Anderson began publishing The Observer, [7] and 16 years after an anonymous female editor published The Humming Bird, or Herald of Taste. [8] Moreover, Carr's magazine, like almost all magazines edited by women in the 19th century, was aimed at a female audience, while Anderson's publication was directed at both men and women. [9]

Almost immediately, Anderson became embroiled in what the first of a number of journalistic vendettas: her featured columnist, "Benjamin Bickerstaff," quit in a huff after Anderson made some sarcastic remarks about young Baltimore ladies and what Anderson perceived to be their affectations. [10] Later in 1807, Anderson's sarcasm about the state of the arts and culture in Baltimore, which she found sadly lacking, brought accusations that she was elitist and unpatriotic. [11] Further criticism and outrage came her way when, in the fall of 1807, Anderson's translation of a scandalous French novel, Claire d'Albe by Sophie Cottin, was published. [12]

By the end of 1807, following a number of attacks and weary of coping with subscribers who balked at paying their bills, Anderson decided to closedThe Observer. She identified her gender as the primary source of the animosity against her. In one of the magazine's final issues, Anderson wrote, "It was a Woman who was [The Observer's] editor, this was all that was necessary to render its enemies BRAVE, and this was enough to embolden the most pusillanimous Wight to assume the garb of the Lion." [13] While there were certainly other reasons for the hostility Anderson encountered—her merciless satire, and the fact that her translation of Claire d'Albe offended contemporary standards of decency—it appears that the feeling against her was intensified by her gender.

Personal life

In 1808, Anderson married French architect Maximilian Godefroy, who designed several notable buildings in Baltimore. [14] Over the years, Godefroy found it difficult to support himself in Baltimore, and in 1819 the family embarked for Europe. Shortly after they sailed, Mrs. Godefroy's 19-year-old daughter from her first marriage, also named Eliza, was taken ill with yellow fever aboard the ship and died. Eventually, the Godefroys traveled to England and then to France, where Godefroy made a modest living as a government architect. Eliza Anderson Godefroy died in Laval, France, on October 2, 1839, at the age of fifty-nine. [15]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Wexler 2010, pp. 100, 105.
  2. ↑ Wexler 2010, p. 103.
  3. ↑ Wexler 2010, pp. 103–105, 113.
  4. ↑ Wexler 2010, p. 105.
  5. ↑ The Observer, February 21, 1807
  6. ↑ Wells 2008 pp. 166, 167-68
  7. ↑ Okker 1995, pp. 7–8; Branson 2008, p. 23
  8. ↑ MURPHY, JILLMARIE (2016). ""The Humming Bird; or Herald of Taste" (1798): Periodical Culture and Female Editorship in the Early American Republic". American Periodicals. 26 (1): 44–69. ISSN   1054-7479. JSTOR   44630664.
  9. ↑ Branson 2008, p. 13; Okker 1995, pp. 1, 8, 13, 15-17
  10. ↑ Wexler 2010, pp. 105–06.
  11. ↑ Wexler 2010 pp. 110–11, 115-18; Wood 2009, pp. 571–72
  12. ↑ Cottin 1799/2002, p. xxvii; Wexler 2010, pp. 118–120
  13. ↑ The Observer, December 19, 1807
  14. ↑ Wexler 2010, p. 120.
  15. ↑ Wexler 2010, pp. 123–125.

Related Research Articles

Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction focused on such feminist themes as: gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to critique the dominant culture. Some of the most notable feminist science fiction works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.

Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hortense de Beauharnais</span> Queen consort of Holland from 1806 to 1810

Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte was Queen consort of Holland. She was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I as the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Hortense later married Napoléon I’s brother, Louis Bonaparte, who had been made King of Holland, making her her stepfather’s sister-in-law. She was the mother of Napoléon III, Emperor of the French; Louis II of Holland; and Napoléon Louis Charles Bonaparte who died at the age of four. She also had an illegitimate son, Charles, Duke of Morny, with her lover, the Comte de Flahaut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the history of the United States (1790–1819)</span>

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1790 to 1819.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Josepha Hale</span> American writer and editor (1788–1879)

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale was an American writer, activist, and editor of the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civil War, Godey's Lady's Book. She was the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Hale famously campaigned for the creation of the American holiday known as Thanksgiving, and for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Seward</span> English Romantic poet, 1742–1809

Anna Seward was an English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield. She benefited from her father's progressive views on female education.

<i>Ms.</i> (magazine) American liberal feminist magazine

Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Mary Peacock, Margaret Sloan-Hunter, and Gloria Steinem. Beginning as a one-off insert in New York magazine in 1971, the first stand-alone issue of Ms. appeared in January 1972, with funding from New York editor Clay Felker. It was intended to appeal to a wide audience and featured articles about a variety of issues related to women and feminism. From July 1972 until 1987, it was published on a monthly basis. It now publishes quarterly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisa Bonaparte</span> Imperial French princess (1777–1820)

Maria Anna Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy, better known as Elisa Bonaparte, was an imperial French princess and sister of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was Princess of Lucca and Piombino (1805-1814), Grand Duchess of Tuscany (1809-1814) and Countess of Compignano by appointment of her brother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Ristaud Cottin</span> French writer (1770–1807)

Sophie Cottin was a French writer whose novels were popular in the 19th century, and were translated into several different languages.

Natalie L. Wexler is an American education writer focusing on literacy and equity issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Letty Cottin Pogrebin</span> American author, journalist, lecturer, and social justice activist

Letty Cottin Pogrebin is an American author, journalist, lecturer, and social activist. She is a founding editor of Ms. magazine, the author of twelve books, and was an editorial consultant for the TV special Free to Be... You and Me for which she earned an Emmy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in journalism</span>

Women in journalism are individuals who participate in journalism. As journalism became a profession, women were restricted by custom from access to journalism occupations, and faced significant discrimination within the profession. Nevertheless, women operated as editors, reporters, sports analysts and journalists even before the 1890s in some countries as far back as the 18th-century.

Eliza Parsons was an English Gothic novelist, best known for The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) and The Mysterious Warning (1796). These are two of the seven Gothic titles recommended as reading by a character in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexandrine de Bleschamp</span> French-Italian princess

Alexandrine Bonaparte, Princess of Canino and Musignano was a French aristocrat and by marriage member of the French Imperial family.

Eliza Bisbee Duffey (1838–1898) was an American painter, author, poet, newspaper editor and printer, columnist, spiritualist, and feminist who published several books in defense of women's rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maximilian Godefroy</span> French-American architect

J. Maximilian M. Godefroy was a French-American architect. Godefroy was born in France and educated as a geographical/civil engineer. During the French Revolution he fought briefly on the Royalist side. Later, as an anti-Bonaparte activist, he was imprisoned in the fortress of Bellegarde and Château d'If then released about 1805 and allowed to come to the United States, settling in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became an instructor in drawing, art and military science at St. Mary's College, the Sulpician Seminary. By 1808, Godefroy had married Eliza Crawford Anderson, editor of her own periodical, the Observer and the niece of a wealthy Baltimore merchant.

Mormon feminism is a feminist religious social movement concerned with the role of women within Mormonism. Mormon feminists commonly advocate for a more significant recognition of Heavenly Mother, the ordination of women, gender equality, and social justice grounded in Mormon theology and history. Mormon feminism advocates for more representation and presence of women as well as more leadership roles for women within the hierarchical structure of the church. It also promotes fostering healthy cultural attitudes concerning women and girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline M. Sawyer</span> American writer

Caroline M. Sawyer was a 19th-century American poet, writer, and editor. Her writings ranged through a wide variety of themes. Born in 1812, in Massachusetts, she began composing verse at an early age, but published little till after her marriage. Thereafter, she wrote much for various reviews and other miscellanies, besides several volumes of tales, sketches, and essays. She also made numerous translations from German literature, in prose and verse, in which she evinced an appreciation of the original. Sawyer's poems were numerous, sufficient for several volumes, though they were not published as a collection.

Martha Violet Ball was a 19th-century American educator, philanthropist, activist, writer, and editor. Ball and her sister, Lucy, undertook the work of opening a school for young African American girls in the West End of Boston. In the same year, 1833, she assisted in the organization of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, of which she and Lucy held leadership roles. Her work among unfortunate women and girls led to the formation of the New England Female Moral Reform Society, with which she was from its beginning connected as Secretary and Manager. For twenty-five years, she was joint-editor of its organ, the Home Guardian, and was also affiliated in its department, "The Children's Fireside". She was a constituent member of the Ladies' Baptist Bethel Society, first as its Secretary and for thirty years its President. Ball was the first President of the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America for Heathen Lands, and a charter member of the New England Woman's Press Association. She was the author of several small, popular books.

The Humming Bird, or Herald of Taste was an American women's magazine published in 1798. It is the first known magazine in the United States edited by a woman, for women.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.