Abstract
Perhaps more than any other individuals in the nineteenth century, Fanny Fern and Robert Bonner are responsible for making professional authorship not only a viable profession but even a lucrative one. As publisher of the New-York Ledger, Bonner went out of his way to use his considerable promotion machine to turn his stable of authors into celebrities, publicizing the previously un heard of sums he paid and exclusive contracts he negotiated. And he began by bringing Sara Willis Parton, better known as Fanny Fern, to his paper, first by paying her an astounding rate of $100 per column for a serialized story in 1855, then making the arrangement perma nent by contracting with her for a regular column, with the length of each installment entirely up to her discretion. Bonner first announced the arrangement in the unique style that became a cornerstone of his storypaper's success and the celebrity of his authors:
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