Cornelia Wells Walter (June 7, 1815 - January 31, 1898) is generally considered to have been the first woman

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

of a major

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

in the United States.

Biography

Walter was the fourth and youngest child of Lynde Walter, a Boston merchant, and his second wife, Ann Minshull. Her brother Lynde Walter was one of the founders of the ''

Boston Evening Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. Beginnings ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...

'' in 1830. Originally the paper's

theater critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

, at age 29 she became the editor of the ''Transcript'', taking over the position from her brother upon his death in 1842. She served as editor from 1842 to 1847. Under Walter, the ''Transcript'' reflected the conservative tastes of upper class Bostonians. She opposed slavery and praised

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

, but also chided

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

and published articles against abolition. She criticized authors who were later firmly embraced by the literary canon, such as

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ri ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, and

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

. In 1845, she began a vicious war of words with Poe that raised her national prominence. In September 1847, she retired from the paper to marry William Bordman Richards, a Boston iron and steel merchant. They lived in a fashionable Boston neighborhood and had two children who survived infancy. She occasionally contributed to the ''Transcript'' and published the book ''Mount Auburn Illustrated'' (1847) about

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walter, Cornelia 1813 births 1898 deaths American newspaper editors American women journalists Boston Evening Transcript people Women newspaper editors 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American women writers