Unmaidenly Labor: Literary Labor in the Modernist Market, Helen Wright's Collection of Autographed Books, and Edith Wharton

Abstract: The Helen Wright Collection of Autographed Books at Vassar College testifies to a modernist market that was sustained in its capitalization of individual author signatures by a system of secondary literary labors. Straddling differently gendered spheres of this market, Wright competed with established book collectors while retaining a sense of "sentimental ownership" (Lori Merish) that set her apart from the bibliophile businessmen of her era. This endeavor involved commodifying celebrities such as Edith Wharton, whose conspicuous absence from the collection speaks to a conception of meaningful literary work that negates Wright's labor. Ultimately, the essay seeks to advance a broader discussion of how scholars can do justice to an understanding of literary production as integrally involving forms of labor that have historically been undervalued.