Godey's Lady's Book

Michelle Mastro

Godey’s Ladies Book is the domestic affairs magazine of which Sarah Josepha Hale edited for over forty years. Hale was the first female editor of a magazine, editing the Boston Ladies Magazine before she went on to edit for Godey. Hale was the first woman to make a career of editing publications, and despite turning 80 years of age; she would not stop working. This is really ironic because Hale never encouraged women to work, even though, she indeed worked for a living and might have even been considered a “blue-stocking” of sorts.

Sarah Josepha Hale was allowed to fully edit the magazine without rebuttal, deciding to exclude such controversial topics as slavery from the publication. This is just one more example of Hale's wearing rose-tinted glasses. For, Hale writes of how great the ideals and institution of marriage are in her work, Manners, often forgetting how other women during her time may not have had the same opportunities as she did: education and a good husband.