‘Afford[ing] me a Place’: Recovering Women Poets in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 1827–1835

Abstract

Drawing upon digital bibliographic resources and databases including The Periodical Poetry Index, Lindsy Lawrence presents a compelling corrective to the received opinion that women poets rarely featured in the homosocial space of Blackwood’s during the ‘Romantic Victorian’ period. In addition to demonstrating that multiple women poets contributed a considerable volume of verse to Blackwood’s, many of which were signed, Lawrence also shows that these contributors were canny professionals. Analysis of the correspondence between the poets and their editor, William Blackwood, sheds light on their business acumen, as well as their sharp understanding of the machinations of the literary marketplace. As Lawrence explains, for these poets, negotiating ‘a space within the pages of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine granted them the kind of cultural access important to the furthering of their work and careers’ (p.400).