women and publishing
Posted by P. Bingham on March 18, 1998 at 15:31:56:
In response to A little confused..., written by Clare on March 18, 1998 at 00:05:46
it applies in that women often used pen names for various reasons, one of them being not to bring attention to the fact that they are women, which often made books difficult to sell. The status of women at the time made women authors "bluestockings." I'm not sure where we are in the book but even Jane Austen made fun of herself and put herself in the back seat as soon as she realized that she was the better writer in her family, better that is, than her brothers who appeared so intelligent to her and so well with words. She was very surprise when she read the articles they had written for thier newsletter, discovering that it was she, indeed, who had the art of the pen.
What I meant by providing the book is that there are so many factors that prevent women from performing like men. That the publisher did not know that it was a woman is really immaterial. Austen knew she was a woman and she soon discovered the draw backs of being one.
Patricia
Posting followups to old messages is disabled; instead go to the main index and post a new message which mentions this one.
