Marie Manning

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Marie Manning (born January 22, 1872 in Washington DC ; † November 28, 1945 ibid), pseudonym Beatrice Fairfax , was an American writer and author of Dear Beatrice Fairfax ( Dear Beatrice Fairfax ), the first newspaper column in the USA in who gave advice on personal issues.

biography

Marie Manning was born in 1872, but she gave her year of birth to her closest family and friends as 1878 throughout her life; only after her death did her son Oliver Gasch find out the actual date based on documents. Manning's mother, Elizabeth Barrett, died giving Marie's birth. Marie Manning attended several Washington private schools and eventually graduated from Miss Kerr's. When she was 18 years old, her father, Michael Charles Manning, died. Marie then went to relatives in England in the early 1890s, where she got to know British society. It was also here that she wrote her first book, Long Alingham, Bankrupt , published in 1901.

Back in the United States, Manning began writing for the New York World newspaper in 1896, initially for $ 5 a week. Her salary rose to $ 30 after getting an exclusive interview with Grover Cleveland , the current President of the United States. When the editor of New York World, Arthur Brisbane, moved to the New York Evening Journal in 1897, Manning followed him along with other colleagues. In her new position, she worked with two other women on the creation of the women's page Hen Coop ( e.g. Hennenstall ) and also wrote sensational crime stories.

In 1898 the newspaper received three letters to the editor asking for advice on personal problems. When Manning was asked by Brisbane to write an article about it, she suggested a new column instead, devoted solely to personal advice - a journalistic form previously unheard of in the United States. On Manning also the pseudonym used by you go Beatrix Fairfax (and hence the commonly held name of the column, Dear Beatrix Fairfax -  Love Beatrix Fairfax ) back - named after Dante's Beatrice and the former house of Manning's family in Fairfax County in the state of Virginia . The proposed name Beatrix Fairfax was Brisbane's favorite of several ideas suggested by the journalists of the Evening Journal; Brisbane decided that Manning should write the new column. The idea of ​​publishing the column under the real name of Manning or another journalist was not even considered: in 1898, it was still considered somewhat improper for a woman to print something under her name.

From July 20, 1898, the new column appeared in which Manning, using the pseudonym Beatrice Fairfax, answered questions about love topics with common sense. Readers' questions related to how to win a man's heart, how to hold a woman, or what intimacies were permissible in different situations, and Manning responded using a few set rules of conduct and following the motto: "Dry your eyes, roll up your sleeves, and dig for a practical solution. ”At the height of tabloid journalism in the US, the column was an instant hit. There were up to 1,400 letters to the editor a day - so many that the post office soon refused to deliver them, whereupon the newspaper had to have the letters picked up by two strong men. There were imitators of the format across the country. But while the name of her pseudonym became known nationwide, Manning himself remained largely anonymous. She also received little recognition from her newspaper, her salary and position remained low, whereupon she finally quit.

In 1905 Manning married the realtor Herman Gash (her name was from then on Marie Manning Gash ) and subsequently devoted herself mainly to her two sons. However, she continued to write freelance, and her short stories have appeared in various magazines including Harper's Monthly and Ladies' Home Journal. In addition, she increasingly campaigned for the rights of women, which had already been a concern of her when she was a journalist.

The Gash family's financial position was difficult, and Manning invested an inheritance from her father in highly-rated stocks. When she lost her money in the 1929 stock market crash , Manning returned to the New York Evening Journal and resumed the Beatrix Fairfax column, which has now been published in almost 200 newspapers - written by another ghostwriter . While originally mainly young, unmarried women from a young age up to the 20s wrote the letters to the editor, now mainly older readers wrote; almost half of them were men. The column was so popular that George and Ira Gershwin mention it in their song But Not for Me from the musical Girl Crazy (1930): "Beatrice Fairfax, don't you dare / Ever tell me he will care ..." ( for example: "Beatrice Fairfax, never dare tell me that I am important to him ...").

Manning wrote the column until her death from a heart attack in 1945. The column continued for about 20 years.

Novels

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Lynne Olson (May / June 1992). "Dear Beatrice Fairfax ..." American Heritage, Volume 43, Issue 3 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed April 19, 2007) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.americanheritage.com
  2. ↑ a b Encyclopædia Britannica : Marie-Manning (English; accessed April 19, 2007)
  3. ↑ Time : Monday, Dec. 10, 1945 (accessed April 21, 2007)
personal data
SURNAME Manning, Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fairfax, Beatrice (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington DC
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1945
Place of death Washington DC