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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
During the last decade of the seventeenth century the rapidly increasing influence of female readers found public acknowledgment in many of the projects of John Dunton, London book-seller and publisher. To the Fair Sex he dedicated in 1691 and 1692, first monthly, then fortnightly, and finally weekly numbers of his Athenian Mercury; to them he made special appeal when sales were slow; and to them he presented, in 1693, a short-lived and most unedifying Ladies' Mercury, a publication that may fairly be called the first English periodical for women.
1 MP, xxviii, no. 1 (Aug., 1930), “The First English Periodical for Women.”
2 “Letters of John Tipper to Humphrey Wanley,” Camden Society Publications, xxiii, Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men.
3 Ladies' Diary, 1706.
4 The Diarian Miscellany: Extracted from the Ladies' Diary (London, 1775), iv, 2.
5 Ladies' Diary for 1711.
6 The Tatler, no. 40, July 12, 1709.
7 Ibid., July 20, 1710.
8 The Spectator, no. 204.
9 The Guardian, no. 1, March 12, 1713.
10 “John Tutchin's Ghost,” dated Dec. 8, 1714, quoted in Life of Richard Steele, by Geo. A. Aitken (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1889), p. 415.
11 The Freethinker, edited and chiefly written by Ambrose Phillips, consisted of 159 numbers, published from March 24, 1718, to Sept. 28, 1719 (3 vols., London, 1722).
12 Andrews, Alexander, History of British Journalism (London, 1859), p. 113.
13 The Female Tatler is numbered 1 to 111, but as there are five Tatlers numbered 88, the final number should be 115.
14 British Apollo, no. 49, (1709).
15 Published on Aug. 19, 1709.
16 Female Tatler, no. 56.
17 Ibid., no. 65.
18 Ibid., no. 60.
19 Ibid., no. 81.
20 Ibid., no. 88.
21 Ibid., no. 95.
22 Ibid., no. 97.
23 The Visiter, June 25, 1723.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid., July 2, 1723.
26 Ibid., July 30, 1723.
27 Ibid., Aug. 6, 1723.
28 Ibid., June 25, 1723.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid. Aug. 13, 1723.
31 Ibid., Dec. 10, 1723.
32 Ibid., Nov. 5, 1723.
33 Ibid., Dec. 20, 1723.
34 The Ladies' Journal from Jan. 17, 1727, to June 29, 1727, is in the Bodleian Library.
35 Jan. 24, 1727.
36 The Parrot, Sept. 25, 1728, to Oct. 16, 1728, in Bodleian Library (Hope Collection).
37 Announcement in the Universal Spectator, Saturday, April 7, 1733. No copy of this Lady's Magazine seems to have survived.
38 Preface to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1737.
39 For an account of Mrs. Haywood's work see the Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, by Geo. Frisbie Whicher (Columbia University Press, 1915).
40 The Lady's Weekly Magazine, no. 1, Thursday, Feb. 19, 1747. Printed for W. Owen, London. (In the Bodleian Library.)
41 Ladies' Magazine, Nov. 10, 1753.
42 The first thirteen numbers of this periodical are in the Bodleian Library.
43 For a recent account of Frances Brooke and her later work see Introduction to Lady Julia Mandeville, edited by E. Phillips Poole (London, 1930).
44 The Old Maid, no. 18, March 13, 1756.
45 The seven numbers of the Young Lady are in the Bodleian Library.
46 The Lady's Museum. Printed for J. Newberry and J. Coote. London, Feb., 1760– Feb., 1761. In the British Museum.
