Fanny Fern 
A Fanny Fern Reader 
Selections by a Pioneering Nineteenth-Century 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.

Daftar Isi

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 gentlemen’: On Newspapers and Editors



Editors, from
Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Port-Folio, 1853

A Breakfast Reverie on Ledger Day, November 6, 1858

For Whom the Cap Fits, November 20, 1858

Comic Tragedies, October 29, 1859

A Word to Editors, January 21, 1860

Gentle Shepherd Tell Me Why?, February 16, 1861

The Fly in the Ointment, from
Ginger-Snaps, 1870

Some Hints to Editors, from
Ginger-Snaps, 1870




X. ‘I am sick of flummery and nonsense and humbug and pretension of every kind’: On Pet Peeves, Nuisances, and Miscellaneous Grievances



A Headache, March 21, 1857

In the Dumps, July 4, 1857

A Hot Day, August 15, 1857

Aunt Peckey, January 15, 1859

Have You Ever Seen Him?, January 29, 1859

Going to Move, April 9, 1859

A Social Nuisance, May 7, 1859

A Gauntlet for a Vermonter, May 14, 1859

Clumsy People, May 28, 1859

Uncourteous Audiences, February 4, 1860

The Whistling Nuisance, March 3, 1860

‘When I Was in Paris, ‘ April 28, 1860

Smoking in the City Cars, July 21, 1860

An Honest Growl, November 17, 1860

Compulsory Shopping, February 9, 1861

The Reason Why, March 2, 1861

Canes, May 11, 1861

Noseology, January 18, 1862

Modern Martyrs, February 1, 1862

Educational Mistakes, April 5, 1862

An Unpleasant Truth, May 17, 1862

Kinks, May 25, 1867

My Grievance, from
Caper-Sauce, 1872




XI. ‘. . . there are days when it is simply blessing enough to be alive’: On Life’s Simple Pleasures



Breakfast, March 14, 1857

Fanny Fern on Sleigh-Riding, January 5, 1861

Spring Time, May 18, 1861

Buoyant People, November 23, 1861

Rainy Days, November 30, 1861

Something to Love, January 11, 1862

Unsought Happiness, August 24, 1867



Notes

Works Cited and Select Bibliography

Index

Tentang Penulis

Emily E. Van Dette 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.