The Editor of the Period: Alice Corkran, the Girl’s Realm, and the Woman Editor

Abstract

In this essay, Beth Rodgers focuses attention on a middle-class monthly periodical that was self-consciously modern in its outlook, especially in terms of the models of girlhood it advanced. In addition to encouraging girls to cultivate lives outside the home through education and employment, the Girl’s Realm (1898–1915) further embodied its progressive 1890s moment through the prominent textual presence of its female editor, Alice Corkran (c.1847–1915). Through an analysis of Corkran’s monthly ‘Chat With the Girl of the Period’ column, Rodgers not only shows how the editor served as an exemplar of modern, female professionalism for the magazine’s girl readers but also demonstrates the significant platform afforded to those readers within the editorial space.