New evaluation of a forgotten American woman writer

Abstract

Caroline Lee Hentz was a best-selling author. All of her books enjoyed a wide popularity, 100,000 copies being sold in a three year period over her life time. Furthermore, her books continued to sell following her death in 1856. Publishers kept some of the titles in print until the last decade of the century, which indicates that they continued to be in demand. A Philadelphia house, under the successive names of Carey and Hart, A. Hart, and Perry and MacMillan, was Hentz's original publisher. After her death the stereotype plates of all her volumes were purchased by T.B. Peterson and Brothers, also of Philadelphia, who then issued "Peterson's Uniform Edition of the Complete Works of Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz" guaranteed to be printed on better paper then before. The last discoverable imprint of this edition was in 1889.