The Victorian poetesseconomic and ideological advantage of allowing the author to pursue her
career at home, without any obvious abdication of domestic responsibil-
ities.
Quite apart from the important earning power that the annuals afforded
to women poets, the fact that women edited as well as published in them
fostered a network of women's writing that rippled down through the
entire Victorian period. The sense of association with sister writers whose
work appeared alongside their own, the opportunity to publish in a large-
circulation market (popular annuals had editions of ten or fifteen thou-
sand), and the correspondence between authors and editors all laid the
foundation for a community of women writers that included such figures as
Grace Aguilar, Eliza Cook, Mary Howitt, Anna Jameson, and Mary Russell
Mitford. In addition, a sense of professional kinship undoubtedly nourished
the ongoing conversation we feel when Victorian women poets allude or
respond to each other's work. It served the editors well when they went on,
as a number of them did, to edit periodicals. Unlike in periodicals (which
were also sources of income for poets and critics) with their traditions of
anonymity, pieces in the annuals were often signed with initials or full
names. The annuals thus helped women authors to establish a reputation
and a readership which could lead to single-author publications. Certainly,
the annuals posed a challenge to anthologists and critics attempting to
institute separate spheres in the literary domain, since female and male
authors appeared in them side by side, and women most often took the role
of editor.
The annuals also helped clear the path for challenges to separate spheres
of ideology beyond literature. One thinks of the publication of Victoria
Regia (1861), the showpiece of an explicitly feminist publishing venture,
the Victoria Press. In fact, the Langham Place circle stood behind this all-
women publishing and printing company, which aimed to train its
employees in every stage of book production. Victoria Regia situated itself
determinedly in the midst of a raging controversy over women's employ-
ment and proper sphere of activity. It upheld the principle of equal pay for
work of equal value, regardless of sex. In response, male printers resorted
to minor industrial sabotage including destroying machinery, inking
women compositors' stools, and mixing up their boxes of type in an
attempt to keep women out of their line of work. 27
Advertised as a "Christmas book," Victoria Regia presents most of the
lavish features of an annual - such as an embossed cloth cover decorated
with gilt, and a size that approaches that of Fisher's Drawing-Room
Scrapbook. This imposing publication contains a range of poetry and
prose by a wide range of prominent authors from a range of political
191