Marie Manning (writer)

Marie Manning (January 22, 1872—November 28, 1945) was a newspaper columnist and novelist in the early 20th century. She wrote the first newspaper advice column, Dear Beatrice Fairfax, in 1898, the precursor to modern versions such as Dear Abby and Ann Landers.

Early life

Manning was born in Washington, DC to Elizabeth Barrett and Michael Charles Manning. Her year of birth, while thought to be 1872, was unknown to even her immediate family and closest confidants during her lifetime. She was educated at various private schools in the District of Columbia, graduating from Miss Kerr's, a finishing school for girls.

Her mother had died at childbirth and her father died when she was 18 years old. This sent her to England in the early 1890s to live with relatives, whereby she studied British society and wrote her first novel Lord Alingham, Bankrupt. It was published in 1902.

Manning began writing as a columnist for the New York World in 1896 at the "space rate" of $5 per week. After being granted an exclusive interview with the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, she was promoted to permanent staff and her salary was raised to $30 per week. When the paper's Editor moved to the New York Evening Journal in 1898, she followed at his invitation. There she collaborated with two other women to create a women's page entitled the "Hen Coop".

Dear Beatrice Fairfax

During the same year, the Hen Coop received three letters from readers who sought advice about personal situations in their lives. Manning suggested a new column exclusively used for giving personal advice. The column was named Dear Beatrice Fairfax at her suggestion, named after Dante's Beatrice and her own family's country home in Fairfax County, Virginia. The column began on July 20, 1898 as the first advice column in the United States.

Her advice was an immediate success, and received so many letters that the United States Post Office soon refused delivery of them and the Journal had to retrieve the letters itself. Manning's common sense advice was imitated nationwide thanks to its tremendous popularity. However, Manning's efforts went largely unrewarded and her payrate and status remained low at the paper. She eventually resigned.

Novels

In the course of her lifetime, Manning had four published novels.

• Lord Alingham, Bankrupt (1902)
• Judith of the Plains (1903)
• Personal Reply (1943)
• Ladies Now and Then (1945)

Magazines

In 1905, Manning married and devoted most of her life to raising her two sons. During this time she freelanced and her short stories were published in various magazines including Harper's Monthly and Ladies' Home Journal.

Return to column

Due to losses incurred by her family in the 1929 Stock Market Crash, Manning went back to work for the New York Evening Journal, again writing her Beatrice Fairfax column (which had been syndicated for years). She wrote the column until her death in 1945.

Trivia

There are references to Beatrice Fairfax in several popular songs of her era. One is in the opening verse of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's song "But Not For Me", from the 1930 musical Girl Crazy:

Beatrice Fairfax, don't you dare
Ever tell me he will care.
I'm certain
It's the final curtain...

Another is in the verse of the 1919 song "Take Your Girlie To The Movies", by Bert Kalmar, Edgar Leslie, and Pete Wendling:

Beatrice Fairfax gives advice,
To anyone in love;
That's why Johnny Gray
Wrote to her one day...

A third is in the song "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me", from Harold Rome's 1937 revue Pins and Needles (later made famous by Barbra Streisand):

Oh Beatrice Fairfax, give me the bare facts,
How do you make them fall?
If you don't save me, the things the Lord gave me
Never will be any use to me at all.

There is a poem by Kenneth Fearing entitled "Dear Beatrice Fairfax" in which he metaphorically lambasts social status as product guarantees.

External links

• Works by Marie Manning at Project Gutenberg

Persondata
Name	Manning, Marie
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Date of birth	1872
Place of birth
Date of death	1945
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