‘Living by the pen’: hesba stretton's moral earnings [1

Abstract

Abstract Hesba Stretton was one of mid-Victorian Britain's leading writers of evangelical fiction. She wrote with the specific intention of bringing social and moral problems before the reading public. As one of her rewards she retained a pristine public image of selflessness, but those within the inner sanctums of the religious publishing world were shocked by Miss Stretton's business tactics. She, unlike other women, broke with accepted convention to negotiate face to face with publishers. This article illuminates Hesba Stretton's business skills and broadens into a discussion of the well-concealed business acumen of other contemporary women writers. Such issues as the economic rewards of writing, incipient feminism and the power of the pen are raised for discussion. Archival material from the Religious Tract Society and Hesba Stretton's personal diaries suggest that this evangelical writer was not only a vociferous social critic but also challenged established, gendered, Christian values