Defunct British periodical
The Ladies' Mercury
The Ladies Mercury
27 February 1693
|
Categories
| Women's periodical
|
---|
Frequency
| weekly
|
---|
Format
| print
|
---|
Publisher
| The Athenian Society
;
John Dunton
|
---|
First issue
| February 27, 1693
; 331 years ago
(
1693-02-27
)
|
---|
Final issue
Number
| March 17, 1693
(
1693-03-17
)
4
|
---|
The Ladies' Mercury
(27 February 1693 ? 17 March 1693)
was a
periodical
published in
London
by the
Athenian Society
notable for being the first periodical in English published and specifically designed for women readers.
History
[
edit
]
In 1690, London publisher
John Dunton
founded
The Athenian Mercury
, the first major periodical in England or Scotland designed to appeal to a general readership. Dunton's
Athenian Mercury
dealt with a range of topics such as science, religion, as well as private life, including sexuality. The
Athenian Mercury
was a public forum where questions were submitted by readers. Because of the presumed interest of women readers in domesticity, courtship, and marriage, the editors decided to devote the first Tuesday of each month to such topics, announced this policy on 3 June 1691, and invited "reasonable questions sent to us by the fair sex".
[1]
The monthly "ladies'" topics in the
Athenian Mercury
proved popular, and
The Ladies Mercury
was the result. Dunton is generally assumed to have been the editor although he did not acknowledge it
[2]
and formally the editorship was given over to a "dimly realised Ladies Society"
[3]
that promised to respond to "all the most nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour of the female sex, whether virgins, wives, or widows." Also printed in London, each issue consisted of a single double-sided sheet taken up by an advice column, and the first was released on 27 February 1693.
[4]
The Ladies Mercury
was only published for four weeks and the last issue appeared on 17 March 1693.
[1]
One commentator has speculated that the run was so short because the new venture risked drawing away the women readers
The Athenian Mercury
itself cultivated.
[5]
Another writes that while much remains obscure,
The Ladies' Mercury
"occupies a position in literary history that is incommensurate with its brief, four-issue, run."
[3]
Legacy
[
edit
]
Other publications designed specifically for women readers followed soon after:
The Female Tatler
was named for the
Tatler
, and
The Female Spectator
, edited by
Eliza Haywood
, was a monthly publication which took its name from
Addison
and
Steele's
The Spectator
.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Turner p. 65
- ^
Stearns p. 45.
- ^
a
b
Parsons p. 315.
- ^
Keeble p. 13.
- ^
Berry, p. 23.
Resources
[
edit
]
- Berry, Helen.
Gender, Society, and Print Culture in Late Stuart England: the cultural world of
The Athenian Mercury. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
- Harcup, Tony. "
Ladies’ Mercury
."
A Dictionary of Journalism
, Online, Oxford University Press, 2014, .
- Keeble, Richard,
Print Journalism
, Taylor & Francis, 2005,
ISBN
0-415-35882-5
- Morrish, John,
Magazine Editing: How to Develop and Manage a Successful Publication
, Routledge, 2003,
ISBN
0-415-30381-8
- Parsons, Nicola. "
The Ladies Mercury
."
Women’s Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690?1820s: The Long Eighteenth Century
, edited by Jennie Batchelor and Manushag N. Powell, Edinburgh University Press, 2018, pp. 315?26. Rpt. "
The Ladies Mercury
."
Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690-1820s
. 2018.
doi
:
10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419659.003.0021
- Stearns, Bertha-Monica. "The First English Periodical for Women."
Modern Philology
Vol. 28, No. 1 (Aug., 1930), pp. 45?59. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/433233
. Accessed 20 Sep. 2022.
- Turner, David M.,
Fashioning adultery: gender, sex, and civility in England, 1660?1740
, Cambridge University Press, 2002,
ISBN
0-521-79244-4
See also
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]