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The Professionalisation of Authorship in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract This article argues that the explosion in the number of quarterly, monthly and weekly publications in the 1820s and 1830s enabled nineteenth-century writers to earn a living by writing for the periodical press, and led to the increased professionalisation of authorship. Taking as a starting point G.H. Lewes’ 1847 article on ‘The Condition of Authors in England, Germany and France’ it analyses several forms of professionalism in male and female authors, many of whom adopted a more business-like approach to their careers. It also argues that the mid-nineteenth century added a more nuanced interpretation of the role of publisher and of the process of getting published to Robert Darnton’s famous ‘communications circuit.