"Every Body Sees the Theft": Fanny Fern and Literary Proprietorship in Antebellum America

Homestead discusses Fanny Fern's career as a national mass cultural phenomenon in antebellum America. Fanny Fern wrote short newspaper sketches in a variety of modes addressing all members of the average middle-class family, but rather than engage in more typical strategies of "feminine" authorial self-effacement, she repeatedly drew attention to her popularity and played with the dangers of literary proprietorship.