The History of Literature – Episode 775

Celebrity Authorship in the Nineteenth Century (with Sarah Allison) | My Last Book with Emily Van Duyne
Host: Jacke Wilson
Guests: Sarah Allison (Loyola University New Orleans), Emily Van Duyne
Date: February 12, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Jacke Wilson explores the concept of literary celebrity in the nineteenth century, with a primary focus on how print culture, quantitative analysis, and social activism intertwined to shape public perceptions of authors. Sarah Allison discusses her new book, "The Rise of Celebrity: 19th Century Print Culture and Anti-Slavery," examining how authors navigated multiple roles—beyond just writing novels—to become public figures. The episode also features a special "My Last Book" segment with Emily Van Duyne, who shares her wish to read Sylvia Plath’s missing journals as her final book.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining the Project: Literary Celebrity Beyond the Canon

[05:09–08:34]

• Sarah Allison's Approach: Focuses on how both fictional and nonfictional writings contributed to the construction of celebrity authorship.
  • “I was interested in the figure of the author and the way that our understandings of authors emerge both through fiction and through non fictional texts.” (Sarah Allison, 05:29)
• Quantitative & Computational Methods: Sarah discusses using bibliographic data and computational models (notably those by Ted Underwood) to distinguish and analyze genres within a vast array of print forms.
  • “How many there were, how many copies were sold, how much they cost to produce. So those are definitely quantitative methods as well.” (Sarah Allison, 05:58)
• Analogy with Modern Authorship: Jacke likens the Victorian print culture to today's multi-platform celebrity, where an author’s influence extends far beyond their best-known work.

2. Nineteenth-Century Print Culture: Forms, Market, and Influence

[08:34–19:48]

• Interplay of Forms: Authors engaged with readers through diverse forms—lectures, pamphlets, biographies, gift books, and more, not just through canonical novels.
• Case Study – Josiah Henson & Harriet Beecher Stowe:
  • Henson's narrative evolved through multiple editions, gaining legitimacy and celebrity through Stowe's recognition and editorial involvement.
  • “Those pamphlets, including those by Douglass and Sojourner Truth, function like merch. When you give a lecture, you sell your book.” (Sarah Allison, 12:45)
• Blurred Genre Boundaries: Computational models sometimes failed to differentiate between novels and autobiographies, highlighting real-life confusion and overlap in genre.

3. The Marketplace of Abolitionist Print

[16:21–23:01]

• Role of Publishers & Market Forces: John P. Jewett, Stowe’s and Henson’s publisher, became a central figure, shaping anti-slavery literature into a genre and marketing opportunity.
  • “It's part of his list. Or his brand to be thinking about anti slavery.” (Sarah Allison, 16:55)
• Genre as Trend: Anti-slavery was not just a political stance but a literary genre, attracting both committed activists and opportunistic writers and publishers.
• Networked Celebrity: Not solely a top-down phenomenon; relationships and networks of authors, editors, and causes created and sustained celebrity.

4. The "Print Culture Sublime" & Gift Books

[24:17–29:10]

• Media Variety: 19th-century print culture was rich in collectible media—friendship albums, autograph collections, and annual gift books that mixed literary, political, and personal elements.
  • “A gift book is the sort of secret, the Christmas secret of the publication market. And we know this best from Dickens Christmas Carol is that Christmas is a great time to sell books.” (Sarah Allison, 25:12)
• Fostering Celebrity: These print forms connected authors to readers directly and helped build their public reputation across borders and genres.

5. Edgar Allan Poe and the Satire of Celebrity

[29:10–33:34]

• Poe’s Skepticism & Editorial Power: Poe’s satire of autograph collecting highlighted both the literary mania of celebrity and the evolving role of editors.
  • “He does what he calls hasty critical, or rather gossiping observations about each writer... You can see here what Tamara Thornton has called, like this, like, romantic faith that, like, you will be revealed through your handwriting.” (Sarah Allison, 30:43)
• Role of the Editor: Revealed as central to literary production—sometimes displaying as much (or more) celebrity than writers themselves.

6. Understanding Nineteenth-Century Readers

[33:34–40:40]

• Readers’ Fascination with Authors' "Truth": Readers passionately sought biographical details, seeing them as keys to understanding fiction.
  • “There was an attention to text that came at the expense of attention to context. And that for a long time, if you took a class on an author, you read at least one biography of that author.” (Sarah Allison, 34:01)
• Parallels to Modern Readers: The hunger to connect fiction to real life persists; readers today (and then) want to know “what’s true,” cross-referencing texts and their authors.
  • “You write fiction, they want to know what’s true; you write nonfiction, they want to know what you made up.” (Sarah Allison, 39:29)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On genre and quantification:
  • “If you feed it a 19th century book, can it tell if it's a novel or a biography?” (Sarah Allison, 05:58)
• On authors as public figures:
  • “It’s about recouping, liberating that author as they might have appeared.” (Sarah Allison, 08:34)
• On the print culture 'sublime':
  • “For me, the computational methods are to try to get at this sort of chaos of the 19th century, like what I sometimes think of as the print culture sublime...” (Sarah Allison, 21:32)
• On Poe’s acerbic editorial style:
  • “[Poe] observes that W.L. Stone... has a manuscript that is, quote, heavy and sprawling, resembling his mental character in a species of utter unmeaningness which lies like the nightmare upon his autograph.” (Sarah Allison, 30:43)

Segment: My Last Book – Emily Van Duyne on Sylvia Plath’s Missing Journals

[43:08–52:12]

The Question: "What Do You Want Your Last Book to Be?"

• Emily’s Answer: Plath’s missing journals from her last two years, presumed lost or destroyed by Ted Hughes, Plath’s husband.
  • “So the last book that I hope I get to read are Sylvia Plath’s Missing Journals.” (Emily Van Duyne, 43:08)
• Why?
  • Not for gossip, but to witness the mature voice and creativity found in Plath’s poetry applied to her private writing.
  • “If art can do things for you, and I think it can, those poems mean more to me than any other art in the world and always will...” (Emily Van Duyne, 47:31)
• On the possibility of hoaxing the journals:
  • Jacke jokes: “Have you thought about doing a hoax? The journals.” (Jacke Wilson, 50:09)
  • Emily: “No, I certainly never thought about doing a hoax, but I am working on a novel about a young Plath scholar in the early 1970s...” (Emily Van Duyne, 50:26)
• Would she save them or read immediately?
  • “Oh, my God. I will definitely read them immediately. It'll be like a Clockwork Orange situation.” (Emily Van Duyne, 51:45)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction and episode theme: 01:08–05:06
• Sarah Allison joins, project methodology: 05:09
• Case study: Josiah Henson and anti-slavery print forms: 11:09–16:21
• Publishers as kingmakers; John P. Jewett: 16:21–19:48
• Effectiveness and audience of abolitionist print: 19:17–23:01
• Gift books, autograph collections, literary souvenirs: 24:17–29:10
• Poe and the satire of literary celebrity: 29:10–33:34
• 19th-century readers’ relationship with celebrity authors: 33:34–40:40
• Emily Van Duyne: My Last Book—Plath’s Missing Journals: 43:08–52:12

Takeaways

• Literary celebrity in the 19th century was not only a product of great works, but also of the surrounding ecosystem—gift books, biographies, lecture tours, and the emerging print marketplace.
• Both then and now, the public’s fascination with authors’ personal stories shapes the reception and longevity of literary works.
• Computational tools, bibliography, and a recognition of genre fluidity help us better map the true lives and impacts of historical literary celebrities.
• The hunger for the "real" person behind the prose is a timeless phenomenon, visible in readers’ obsessions with everything from Brontë’s morality to Plath’s missing journals.

This episode is essential for listeners interested in literary history, the sociology of literature, and the long-standing interplay between literature, celebrity, and print culture.