Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This chapter introduces the idea that early advice columns were essential but overlooked precursors to today’s virtual communities. It contextualizes the genesis of advice columns in the history of media and the press, changing notions of modernity, and the gendered transformations in American culture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Advice columns helped turn American newspapers into a media form that prioritized the reading habits of women. They gave rise to the newspaper advice columnist, a new type of female reporter who played a central role in defining the archetype of the celebrity journalist. Newspaper advice columns redefined the meaning and use of advice, as readers increasingly turned to public, anonymous, and interactive sites for help on their most intimate problems, rather than to their family members or friends.