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Pearl Rivers

Pearl Rivers ( pen name of Eliza Jane Nicholson ; formerly Holbrook ; née Poitevent ; March 11, 1843 – February 15, 1896) was an American journalist and poet, and the first fema...

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Pearl Rivers (pen name of Eliza Jane Nicholson; formerly Holbrook; née Poitevent; March 11, 1843 – February 15, 1896) was an American journalist and poet, and the first female editor of a major American newspaper. After being the literary editor of the New Orleans Daily Picayune, Rivers became the owner and publisher in 1876, after her elderly husband died. In 1880, she took over as managing editor, where she continued until her death in 1896.[1]

She took her pen name from the Pearl River, which was located near her home in Mississippi.[2] She did not let traditional norms hold her back from doing what she wished. Most of her newspaper work was pursued against the wishes of her family and society.

Early life and education

Eliza Jane Poitevent was born in Gainesville, Hancock, Mississippi, USA, on March 11, 1843 (as confirmed by several documents, including the 1850 census and the birth records of her sons). She was the third child of a prosperous family of five, with a busy father and a sickly mother. She is listed on the 1850 U.S. Census as living in Beat 2 of Hancock County, Mississippi, with an age of seven and younger siblings in the household.

Eliza J. Nicholson, "A woman of the century"

When she was nine years old, she moved to her aunt Jane's house in the vicinity of today's Picayune, Mississippi. Her uncle Leonard Kimball managed a plantation, a store, and a toll bridge there. She was sent to the Amite Female Seminary in Liberty, Mississippi, graduating in 1859, where she earned (or gave herself) the title of the "wildest girl in school".[1]

Rivers' first romance was with a young man she had met while at the seminary, but this was suppressed by the headmaster and her uncle. During the American Civil War (1861–1865) she may have fallen in love with a soldier, since such a romance was described in a group of poems she wrote in 1866 for the New Orleans Times.[1]

Career

After the war, she submitted her work to newspapers and magazines under the pseudonym "Pearl Rivers". Her poems appeared in the New Orleans literary sheet The South, as well as the New York Home Journal and the New York Ledger.[3] On 17 October 1866, the New Orleans newspaper The Daily Picayune published her poem "A Little Bunch of Roses", the first of her works known to have appeared in that paper. From 1867 onward, all of her published work appeared in that newspaper.[1]

During a 1868 visit to her grandfather in New Orleans, Rivers met Alva M. Holbrook, a co-owner of The Daily Picayune. He invited her to become literary editor of the newspaper, a position she accepted. In May 1872, she married Holbrook, who was divorced and thirty-four years her senior. In a letter to a former partner, she wrote that Holbrook "never did, and never will" love her.[1] Approximately one month after the marriage, Holbrook's former wife returned from New York and confronted Rivers with a pistol and a bottle of rum. Legal proceedings followed and continued for an extended period.[3]

Holbrook died in 1876 while insolvent, with debts amounting to $80,000. Ownership of the newspaper passed to his widow, who continued its operation.[4] Rivers later formed a relationship with the paper's business manager, George Nicholson, who was married at the time. Following the death of Nicholson's first wife, Nicholson and Rivers married in June 1878.[1]

Picayune owner

George Nicholson acquired a 25 percent ownership stake in The Daily Picayune and served as its business manager. During his tenure, the newspaper reduced its outstanding debt and increased advertising revenue. Rivers oversaw a range of editorial and organisational changes that contributed to growth in circulation and positioned the paper among the leading journals in the southern United States. These changes included the addition of content focused on women, sports, children, poetry, and literary fiction. She also introduced a gossip column and hired Dorothy Dix, an early women's advice columnist.[1] In 1881, she appointed Martha R. Field as the newspaper's first salaried female reporter. Writing under a pseudonym, Field produced the "Catherine Cole's Letter" column and contributed to a second feature, "Women's World and Work".[5][6]

La introducción de una columna social el 16 de marzo de 1879, titulada «La Abeja de la Sociedad», generó críticas de algunos lectores. Un corresponsal la describió como «de mal gusto», «de mala calidad» y «vergonzosa» por mencionar nombres de mujeres en un periódico. Sin embargo, para 1890, la columna se había convertido en la sección más extensa de la edición dominical y fue ampliamente imitada por otras publicaciones. [ 7 ]

La presentación visual del periódico también cambió durante este período. La publicidad se eliminó del espacio estándar de las columnas y se colocó en formatos de recuadros, introducidos por primera vez en junio de 1882. Las ilustraciones eran poco comunes antes de 1885, pero para 1887 el periódico publicaba regularmente dibujos a tiza. El personaje de la Rana del Tiempo apareció en caricaturas a partir del 13 de enero de 1894, y se publicó una caricatura política tras la muerte de Rivers el 18 de abril de 1896. [ 7 ] El periódico adoptó cada vez más un formato orientado a la familia, y entre 1880 y 1890 su circulación se triplicó con creces, junto con un crecimiento en tamaño e influencia. [ 4 ]

Bajo la dirección editorial de Rivers, el periódico se opuso a la corrupción política, expresó opiniones firmes sobre las obras públicas a lo largo del río Misisipi , apoyó el desarrollo ferroviario y abogó por diversas reformas políticas. [ 1 ] Al mismo tiempo, sus posturas editoriales reflejaban las opiniones de gran parte de sus lectores. El periódico adoptó una postura hostil hacia el Partido Republicano Negro y publicó editoriales en la década de 1890 que apoyaban la privación del derecho al voto de los votantes negros, utilizando un lenguaje que los caracterizaba como «incapaces de votar, ignorantes, irresponsables, depravados y con mentalidad criminal», y alegando su manipulación por parte de una «red» de políticos blancos. Los informes sobre linchamientos de personas negras solían ser breves y carecían de comentarios críticos. [ 8 ]

Afiliaciones

Rivers se convirtió en la primera presidenta de la Asociación Nacional de Prensa Femenina en 1884, [ 9 ] y en la primera miembro honoraria del Club de Prensa Femenina de Nueva York. [ 3 ] En marzo de 1886, el editor de la revista neoyorquina Forest and Stream invitó al "Sr. EJ Nicholson" a ser vicepresidente de la Sociedad Audubon . Dos semanas después, el editor se disculpó por haber asumido que Rivers era un hombre y por haberla clasificado dentro del "sexo inferior". [ 10 ]

A lover of animals, Rivers wrote editorials criticizing dog fighting and the beating of horses and mules.[4] She was a driving force in launching the New Orleans Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1888.[3]

Personal life and death

Eliza J. Nicholson, pen name Pearl Rivers, from Some Notables of New Orleans, 1896

George Nicholson died on 4 February 1896 from complications related to influenza. Eliza Nicholson died of the same illness on 15 February 1896, during a widespread epidemic in New Orleans.[1] At the time of her death, the Daily Picayune had more than doubled its circulation during her tenure and had become a newspaper of national significance. She left two sons and was buried with Nicholson in Metairie Cemetery.

Literary achievements

Rivers' early rhyming verse was mainly pastoral, with some poetry touching on love and heartbreak and, in retrospect, was not exceptional although it revealed a keen perception of nature.[3] However, Dr. W.H. Holcomb, a scholarly critic at the time wrote of her book Lyrics that "She stands by this volume ahead of any other Southern poet, and no female writer in America, from Mrs. Sigourney to the Carey[sic] sisters, has evidenced more poetic genius".[7]

An example of her early poetry, first published anonymously:

Whistling through the corn field,Whistling a merry air,My feet are deep in the pea-vines,And tangles are in my hair.
Old folks say 'tis unluckyFor maidens to whistle; still,Life is a rugged country,And whistling helps uphill.

Talking of her early life in the poem Myself, she introduced the "gossip-loving bee," who gave its name to the Society Bee column:

With windows low and narrow too,Where birds came peeping inTo wake me up at early mornAnd oft I used to win
The Cherokees to climb the sill,The gossip loving bee,To come so near that he would pauseAnd buzz a word to me.

Her later blank verse works "Hagar" and "Leah", published in Cosmopolitan in 1893 and 1894, have more depth, giving a powerful sense of the bitterness and jealousy of her heroines.

Her further work, however, was in journalism. Through the use of prose she gave personal commentary on many of the issues of the day. Despite a lack of confidence in her abilities, she was a discerning writer.[3]

Selected works

  • Pearl Rivers (2008) [1873]. Lyrics (2008 reprint ed.). BiblioBazaar, LLC. ISBN 0-554-56958-2.

References

  1. 123456789Wicks, Don (2007-05-21). "Pearl Rivers 1843-1896". Mississippi Writers and Musicians. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
  2. ↑Adrian Room (2010). "Pearl Rivers". Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5th ed.). McFarland. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4.
  3. 123456"Nicholson, Eliza Jane Poitevent". Novelguide.com. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
  4. 123"Louisiana Leaders: Notable Women in History: Eliza Nicholson (Pearl Rivers)". Louisiana State University. Archived from the original on January 12, 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
  5. ↑"Martha Field's Life". Catharine Cole's Louisiana: The Travel Writings of Martha R. Field.
  6. ↑Willard, Frances Elizabeth. A woman of the century: Fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. Moulton, 1893, pp. 288–289.
  7. 123Thomas Ewing Dabney (2007). One Hundred Great Years - The Story of the Times Picayune from Its Founding to 1940. READ BOOKS. p. 262ff. ISBN 978-1-4067-4200-8.
  8. ↑Rayford Whittingham Logan (1997). The betrayal of the Negro, from Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson. Da Capo Press. p. 296ff. ISBN 0-306-80758-0.
  9. ↑Conant, Frances A. (December 1885). "National Press Association". The New Era. 1 (12): 376.
  10. ↑B. H. Gilley (Summer 1989). "A Woman for Women: Eliza Nicholson, Publisher of the New Orleans Daily Picayune". Louisiana History. 30 (3). Louisiana Historical Association: 233–48. JSTOR 4232737.

Further reading

    • Gilley, B. H. "A Woman for Women: Eliza Nicholson, Publisher of the New Orleans Daily Picayune." Louisiana History 30.3 (1989): 233-248. online
  • Patricia Brady (2009). "Eliza Jane Nicholson". In Janet Allured and Judith F. Gentry (ed.). Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-2947-5.
  • Claire Price-Groff (1998). "Eliza Jane Poitevent Holbrook Nicholson". Extraordinary Women Journalists. Children's Press. ISBN 978-0-516-26242-0.
  • Don Wicks (2007-05-21). "Pearl Rivers". In Nancy Jacobs (ed.). Mississippi Writers and Musicians.
  • Lamar W. Bridges (Summer 1989). "Eliza Jane Nicholson and the Daily Picayune, 1876–1896". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 30 (3). Louisiana Historical Association: 263–278. JSTOR 4232739.
  • John N. Ingham (1983). "Eliza Jane Poitevent Holbrook Nicholson". Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 1009–1010. ISBN 978-0-313-21362-5.
  • "Eliza Jane Poitevent Holbrook Nicholson". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  • Michael K. Fitzwilliam (2017). Do You Know How Picayune Got Its Name?.
  • Works by or about Pearl Rivers at the Internet Archive
  • Nicholson Family Papers at The Historic New Orleans Collection