The Periodical as Monitorial and Interactive Space in Judith Sargent Murray's "The Gleaner"

Abstract

In 1796, Judith Sargent Murray began an aggressive subscription campaign for the upcoming publication of the book form of a three-volume collection of her column, The Gleaner, which was originally published in the monthly Massachusetts Magazine.1 Including a subscription blank in each letter, Murray attempted to sell her text by revealing that Gleaner contained two volumes of previously unpublished columns. Among the many recipients of her campaign were her literary cohorts Mercy Otis Warren, Sarah Wentworth Morton, and Joseph Dennie. Hoping to ensure the return of Dennie's subscription card, Murray enticed him by indicating that the book would unveil her male narrator and by revealing the esteemed company he would be among: The Gleaner will contain a reason for my assumption of the masculine character. Possibly the knowledge that I have received the sanction of the Presidents Washington and Adams may facilitate the filling up of my subscription.2 While Murray expected to turn Dennie, Morton, and Warren into readers of these potential readers were in fact best known as authors. Morton, perhaps the most popular poet of her day, responded to Murray's notice both as a willing reader when she completed and returned her subscription card, and as a rival author when she scribbled a letter to Dennie to notify him of Murray's publishing plains. To Dennie, Morton frantically wrote, Yet you must not presume to flatter yourself with being distinguished as the Author; for Mrs. Murray has given out Proposals for printing by Subscription Pages of Gleaner'!!! This Intelligence, I conclude, cannot fail to be interesting to you .3 Morton's intelligence attests to the fact that Dennie was clearly not the only Author as they anxiously debated how to respond to the threat of Murray and 600 Pages of Gleaner.'