Mary Howitt and the Business of Poetry

Mary Howitt served as the principal poetry editor of Howitt's Journal from 1847 to 1848. This article focuses on her understanding and practice of publishing poetry, as well as her approach to the many poems published under her oversight. Approaching Howitt's editorship as a social practice that encompassed networking, standards of poetic quality, and the negotiation of gender roles, I also consider the range of poems in Howitt's Journal and explore their political orientation as indicators of Howitt's editorial preferences. To illuminate her day-to-day editorial decisions and oversight of individual poems, I also draw upon her unpublished editorial correspondence.