C. E. Humphry

C.E. Humphry (died 1925), who often worked under the pseudonym “Madge”, was a well-known journalist in Victorian-era England who wrote for and about issues relevant to women of the time. She wrote, edited and published many works throughout her career and is perhaps best known for originating what was known as the “Lady’s Letter”-style column she wrote for the publication Truth, read throughout the British Empire. She was one of the first woman journalists in England.

The subject matter about which she wrote could be compared to that of Emily Post or Ann Landers.

Background

Charlotte Eliza Humphry, née Graham, was born to a clergyman from the north of Ireland ^[1] in 1854/6 (exact date unknown), and began working at a very young age as a writer and editor. She married Mr. Humphry and had a daughter, Helen Pearl, in 1882.^[2] In 1890, after working for several years as an editor and writer, she moved to London.^[3] She died in 1925.^[4]

Journalistic history

Mrs. Humphry, a.k.a. Madge, began writing the “Girl’s Gossip” column in Truth in 1893 and continued it throughout her career. Mrs. Humphry was one of the first female journalists to write a regular column devoted to women’s issues. At the beginning of her career, there were very limited spaces devoted to women in newspapers and magazines. However, by the 1890s the idea of women making a career in journalism was considerably more acceptable than it had been thirty years previously. By then, women writers had become more visible in mainstream periodicals and specialist women’s magazines. As Humphry herself commented in an interview for Women’s Life:

The scope of women’s work in the journalistic world is much greater now. When I first became a journalist only a few papers published ladies’ letters, and these dealt principally with domestic servants, the management of babies, and similar subjects. Now women go in for golf, bicycling, and other games; in fact, the athletic girl is a new development, and as woman’s world is widened, so is the field for women writers.^[5]

Others would later mimic her style.^[6] Humphry’s columns regularly featured advice on domestic management, etiquette and manners, and getting on in English and foreign society. The articles also frequently contained recipes, which were “prepared by the very best cooks in England and on the Continent”.^[7] By today’s standards, these articles might be considered without focus since they often jumped from topic to topic, and would likely be found in the editorial section of a contemporary newspaper. A sample of her writing from 1887 in Truth can be found here.

She went on to write all the dress and fashion articles for the Daily News^[8] and another “Lady’s Letters” column for the Globe,^[9] two popular daily newspapers at the time. She was also the editor of Sylvia's Home Journal.^[10] It is likely that she sustained her work for most, if not all, of these periodicals and newspapers in addition to publishing several of her own books, including:

• The Book of the Home: A Comprehensive Guide on All Matters Pertaining to the Household, 1909, 6 volumes, Editor
• How to be Pretty Though Plain, 1899
• A word to women, 1898
• The Century Invalid Cookery Books, 1989
• Manners for men, 1897
• Manners for women, 1897

Her complete bibliography is listed below.

Madge’s daughter, Helen Pearl Adam

(Helen) Pearl Adam (1882-1957) was born on April 25, 1882. Pearl began her own career as a journalist in 1899 when she was seventeen. Ten years later, she married another newspaper writer, George Adam. The pair were correspondents in Paris during the First World War, where George Adam had been posted in 1912. There she edited International Cartoons of the War in 1916 and subsequently published her diary of the period under the title Paris Sees it Through. After the war, the couple remained in the city, where Pearl Adam met the writer Jean Rhys, allowing her to live in the Adams' flat, editing Rhys’s first novel, Triple Sec, and introducing her to Ford Madox Ford. George Adam resigned from the Times in January 1921 but remained there working for American newspapers, while his wife wrote articles commissioned by the Evening Standard, the Observer and the Sunday Times, among others. They wrote together A Book about Paris (1927). George Adam died in Paris in 1930, and in the wake of this Pearl Adam returned to England where she continued her work, which included writing the History of the National Council of Women of Great Britain in 1945. She died on January 2, 1957.^[11]

Comprehensive bibliography

• Points Worth Noting for Women, 1918
• The Book of the Home: A Comprehensive Guide on All Matters Pertaining to the Household, 1909, 6 volumes, Editor
• Etiquette for every day, 1902
• Manners for girls, 1901
• Beauty Adorned, 1901
• Madge’s Book of Cookery and Home Management, 1901
• How to be Pretty Though Plain, 1899
• A word to women, 1898
• The Century Invalid Cookery Books, 1989
• Manners for men, 1897
• Manners for women, 1897
• Cookery Up-to-Date, 1896
• Housekeeping: A guide to domestic management, in one volume, 1893

References

Additional References

• The Colac Herald (Vic. : 1875 - 1918). Friday 4 October 1901. "TRUTH'S" MADGE
• New Zealand Newspaper, Star, Issue 7161, 27 July 1901, Page 3. AMERICAN V. ENGLISH MANNERS.
• Project Gutenberg, Link to A Word to Women, Mrs. C.E. Humphry.
• University of California, Information, Education, Technology. Household Books Published in Britain. Listing of books classified under Humphry, Mrs Charlotte Eliza http://householdbooks.ucdavis.edu/authors/1310
• Fraser, Hilary, Green, Stephanie, Judith, Johnston (2003). Gender and the Victorian Periodical. Cambridge University Press: UK.
• The Sydney Morning Herald. February 28, 1906. How to be Pretty Though Plain.
• Humphry Review of “Beauty Adorned” Otago Witness, Issue 2475, 21 August 1901, Page 70. The History of Godfrey Kince. “Beauty Adorned”
• West Gippsland Gazette (Warragul, Vic. : 1898 - 1930) Oh! The Men. How They Dress.
• Helen Long (1993). The Edwardian House: The Middle-class Home in Britain, 1880-1914. Manchester University Press: UK.
• Star, Putanga 4322, 9 Hakihea 1893, Page 2. Literary Notes. London, Oct 13.
• National Archives London University: London School of Economics, The Women's Library. The archive consists of manuscript diaries (1912-1914, 1950-1956), manuscript notebooks which include some of her own poetry (1900-1922), publications by Adams and photographs of visits to Paris (1906, 1915).
• Room, Adrian (2010) Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins: Fifth Ed. McFarland & Company Inc.: US.

External links

• Works by Mrs. C. E. Humphry at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about C. E. Humphry at Internet Archive