‘She has her ladies too’: Women and Scottish Periodical Culture in Blackwood's Early Years

Abstract

This essay looks at some of the women who were published in and reviewed by Blackwood's Magazine in its early years. While the important contributions of women to the Blackwood's of the Victorian period have always been recognised, the Romantic-era magazine is better remembered for a sometimes aggressively ‘masculine’ tone. Women appeared in Blackwood's from the beginning, however, even if only in small numbers. Focusing first on reviews of major women writers – including Madame de Staël and Mary Shelley – and then turning to Felicia Hemans and Anne Grant, both of whom had poems published in the first year of the magazine's run, the essay argues that comments on these women and their work can illuminate the ways in which Blackwood's positioned itself in the competitive world of the Scottish periodical press.