Louis Antoine Godey

Louis Antoine Godey (born June 6, 1804, New York City; died November 29, 1878, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American editor and publisher, known as the founder of "Godey's Lady's Book", the first successful American women's fashion magazine.

Biography

Godey was born to French immigrant parents in New York. His family was poor and he had no formal schooling, but he was self-educated. At age 15, he took a job as a newspaper boy in New York. Several years later, he moved to Philadelphia and became an editor for the "Daily Chronicle". In 1830, he published the first edition of the "Lady's Book", composed of reprinted articles and illustrations from French magazines. Godey married Maria Duke in 1833 and had five children.

Godey hired Sarah Josepha Hale editor of "Godey's Lady's Book" in 1837. The magazine became extremely popular, becoming America's highest circulated magazine in the 1840s [Reynolds, David F. "Poe's Art of Transformation: 'The Cask of Amontillado' in Its Cultural Context", as collected in "The American Novel: New Essays on Poe's Major Tales", Kenneth Silverman, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521422433 p. 101] and reaching over 150,000 subscribers by 1858. Godey published two other magazines, "The Young People’s Book" (1841) and "Lady’s Musical Library (1842)" with less successful results. Godey copyrighted each issue of "Godey's Lady's Book" starting in 1845, making it one of the first magazines in America to do so. [Moss, Sidney P. "Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Literary Milieu". Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962. p. 23]

In the 1870s, he retired to St. Augustine, Florida, but returned to Philadelphia where he died in 1878. He and his wife are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

References

External links

* [http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/LitMap/bios/Godey__Louis_Antoine.html Louis Godey biography (Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Penn State University)]
* [http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0821107.html Columbia Encyclopedia entry for Louis Godey]