The Editorial Legacy of Gladys M. Wrigley

Abstract

Gladys M. Wrigley was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in ge- ography from an American university. During three decades as editor of the Geographical Review, she became one of the most influential scientific editors of the first half of the twentieth century. The journal was to present research of high intellectual quality in a broadly accessible style for a readership of geog- raphers and nongeographers. The body of principles and strategies that she used to achieve these goals continues to be a source of guidelines for any scholarly journal that seeks to communicate beyond a small, specialized readership. This editorial legacy has been widely diffused but, in large measure because of her self-effacing character, rarely ascribed to Wrigley. SEVENTY years ago Gladys Mary Wrigley (1885-1975) was appointed editor of the Geographical Review, a post in which she had functioned de facto for some time. During the next three decades the Geographical Review was one of the foremost scholarly publications in the United States, international in scope and circulation, renowned for breadth of coverage, impeccable scholarship, and accessible prose. Through the hundreds of ar- ticles, record notes, and book reviews that appeared during her editorship, Wrigley was instrumental not only in producing a journal virtually without peer but also in influencing significantly the course of modern geography in terms of both content and standards of public expression. Professional geographers expressed a measure of their esteem and gratitude for her achievement two years after her retirement in 1951: the recently amalgamated Association of American Geographers bestowed on her its first annual award for meritorious contributions to geography. One knowledgeable observer, the publisher Alfred Harcourt, considered her to be the finest scientific editor of her time. Despite the importance of her contribution to modern geography and the high level of contemporary esteem, she quickly faded from professional memory and today is accorded only brief mention, if not totally ignored, in studies of the history of geography (Freeman 1961; James and Martin 1981, 500). John C. Weaver, who served as her assistant in the early 1940s, offers a different interpretation (AGS Archives, Weaver to McManis 18 January 1990):