Jennie Juneiana: Talks on Women's Topics
- Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1864
Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1864. First edition. Fine. Publisher's green cloth. 240 pp. Top edge gilt. Yellow coated endpapers. A Fine copy with just a slight lean to the spine.
Jane Cunningham Croly (1829 – 1901), who wrote under the pseudonym Jennie June, founded both Sorosis, "the most influential early women's club in post-Civil War America" (ANB), and the Woman's Press Club of New York City. Sorosis, which Croly founded in 1868, brought together leading women writers, scientists, and reformers including Maria Mitchell, Alice Cary, Phebe Hanaford, and Louisa May Alcott and resulted in efforts to improve women's educational and employment opportunities (like providing scholarships and vocational training) and health care access. Emily Faithfull, who had been elected an "honorary foreign member" along with Frances Power-Cobbe, wrote in her Three Visits to America: "I believe [Sorosis] has been the stepping-stone to useful public careers, and the source of inspiration to many ladies. Anyhow it has proved that women are not destitute of the power of acting harmoniously together, but can tolerate differences, respect devotion to principle, and meet on higher ground than that of mere personal liking or identity of social clique" (pp. 17-18). The structure and mission of Sorosis inspired many women's clubs around the country and, in 1890, Croly founded the General Federation of Women's Clubs as an alliance of 2,300 organizations coming together under the motto "Unity in Diversity."
Croly was also a prolific journalist and longtime periodical editor. She wrote for the New York World for over fifteen years, serving as the director of the paper's woman's department between 1862 and 1872, and the present work compiles columns she wrote for the paper in the first few years of her tenure. Though Croly offered advice for women on standard topics like children, marriage, and motherhood, "the thrust of her advice to middle-class women readers concerned the absurdity of devoting one’s full time to housework and fashion" (ANB). In Jennie Juneiana, she discussed "Lady Doctors" and "Female Novelists," urged her readers to pursue careers and fulfilling activities outside the home, and encouraged women to pursue their personal and intellectual development both within and beyond the roles traditionally afforded to them. Fine.
Jane Cunningham Croly (1829 – 1901), who wrote under the pseudonym Jennie June, founded both Sorosis, "the most influential early women's club in post-Civil War America" (ANB), and the Woman's Press Club of New York City. Sorosis, which Croly founded in 1868, brought together leading women writers, scientists, and reformers including Maria Mitchell, Alice Cary, Phebe Hanaford, and Louisa May Alcott and resulted in efforts to improve women's educational and employment opportunities (like providing scholarships and vocational training) and health care access. Emily Faithfull, who had been elected an "honorary foreign member" along with Frances Power-Cobbe, wrote in her Three Visits to America: "I believe [Sorosis] has been the stepping-stone to useful public careers, and the source of inspiration to many ladies. Anyhow it has proved that women are not destitute of the power of acting harmoniously together, but can tolerate differences, respect devotion to principle, and meet on higher ground than that of mere personal liking or identity of social clique" (pp. 17-18). The structure and mission of Sorosis inspired many women's clubs around the country and, in 1890, Croly founded the General Federation of Women's Clubs as an alliance of 2,300 organizations coming together under the motto "Unity in Diversity."
Croly was also a prolific journalist and longtime periodical editor. She wrote for the New York World for over fifteen years, serving as the director of the paper's woman's department between 1862 and 1872, and the present work compiles columns she wrote for the paper in the first few years of her tenure. Though Croly offered advice for women on standard topics like children, marriage, and motherhood, "the thrust of her advice to middle-class women readers concerned the absurdity of devoting one’s full time to housework and fashion" (ANB). In Jennie Juneiana, she discussed "Lady Doctors" and "Female Novelists," urged her readers to pursue careers and fulfilling activities outside the home, and encouraged women to pursue their personal and intellectual development both within and beyond the roles traditionally afforded to them. Fine.