L. T. Meade (1844-1914) was one of the most popular and industrious writers of the Victorian fin de siècle. She is remembered as the creator of the modern girls’ school story, but over the course of a professional career that spanned four decades, Meade wrote close to three hundred books and countless short stories in a variety of genres for readers of all ages. She also edited the highly regarded middle-class girls’ literary magazine Atalanta from 1887 to 1893. She was considered a literary celebrity by the influential Strand Magazine where her innovative medical mysteries and sensational stories of female criminals competed with the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. But Meade was more than a successful author. She was also an influential participant in London’s literary circles and an active member of numerous literary professional, and feminist associations. Despite the scope of Meade’s career and her significant presence in the literary marketplace, her name has now passed into relative obscurity. Assessments of Meade in the twentieth century have been limited, dismissive, and generally negative. But as I demonstrate in this dissertation, many of these assessments are based on a narrow reading of her girls’ fiction and an incomplete sense of her professional activity. This dissertation, based on a historically contextualized reading of a broad selection of Meade’s works, focuses on the author as a professional woman writer and editor and highlights some of her significant contributions to popular literature and popular culture generally. The chapters in this study are organized into sections that reflect the trajectory of Meade’s career. Part I, “Meade and the Market,” introduces Meade as a professional writer. It includes biographical information, a discussion of Meade’s self representation, and an examination of a selection of her texts to show how she identified literary trends and used topical issues to frame her stories and market them to publishers and the reading public. Part II, “Meade and Atalanta,” focuses on Meade as a professional woman editor. It consists of three linked chapters on Meade and the girls’ literary magazine Atalanta and includes an examination of Meade’s contributions to juvenile periodical literature as well as a discussion of Atalanta as a family literary magazine. Part III, “New Markets and New Genres,” focuses on Meade as a popular professional woman writer and examines her involvement with the popular press in the years following her departure from Atalanta. It shows how Meade’s involvement with the Strand Magazine signalled a new direction in her literary style and market orientation and highlights her significant contributions to detective and mystery fiction. Throughout this study, I argue that Meade was more than a popular girls’ author; she was also a successful professional woman writer and editor, a shrewd businesswoman, and a significant participant in the literary marketplace. I also argue that Meade’s career merits consideration because it offers important insights into the way fin-de-siècle women writers shaped their careers and positioned themselves in the literary marketplace. / Graduate / 10000-01-01

For centuries utopian and science fiction has allowed women to engage with dominant discourses, especially those which have been defined as the “domain” of men. Feminist scholars have often characterized this genealogy as one which begins with the destabilization of Enlightenment ideals of the rational subject in the Romantic Revolution, with the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) in particular. This thesis demonstrates that there has in fact been an enduring history of women’s cognitive and rational attempts to explore key discourses such as science, technology and architecture through Reason, as opposed to rage. This is a genealogy of women writing utopian science fiction that is best illuminated through Darko Suvin’s of the novum. Chapter One reveals how the innovative utopian visions of Margaret Cavendish (1626-1673) proffer a highly rational and feminist critique of seventeenth-century experimental science. Chapter Two demonstrates how Sarah Scott’s Millenium Hall (1762) explored the socio-political significance of the monstrous-looking “human” body some fifty years before Shelley’s Frankenstein. Following this, Chapter Three re-reads Frankenstein in light of the early nineteenth century zeitgeist of laissez-faire economics, technological advancement and global imperialism and argues that these were also the concerns of other utopian science fiction works by women, such as Jane Loudon’s The Mummy! (1827). Chapter Four analyses how the function of the novum is integral to L.T. Meade’s (1854-1915) depictions of male/female interaction in the scientific field. Chapter Five considers how important it is to acknowledge the materialist concern with popular science that informs texts such as Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975) and Pat Cadigan’s cyberpunk novel Synners (1991). This is the history of how women have used the form of utopian science fiction as a means with which to present a rational female voice. In addition to the historical works by women, it employs a range of utopian and science fiction theory from Suvin and Fredric Jameson to historical and contemporary feminism.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 531-561). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

A March 1866 issue of The Lancet observes, "If a newspaper were in want of a startling story with which to enliven a dull copy in the 'off season,' it could not do better than select one with the heading "'Buried Alive'"("Premature Interment" 295). Stories of being buried alive gave readers of all backgrounds a thrill. However, the stories frustrated the medical and scientific communities who were quick to dismiss the threat of live burial as a possibility in a modern world. Drawing on the literary history of "buried alive" stories and medical knowledge surrounding death signs and catalepsy, this thesis explores how two of L.T. Meade's stories from her Stories from the Diary of a Doctor series engages with the "buried alive" literary tradition in favor of nineteenth-century debate for death certification reform. Through applying common tropes found within the "buried alive" literary tradition, Meade's Diary of a Doctor stories address the most pressing concerns surrounding death certification reform in a way that engage contemporary readers' interest while emphasizing the need for legislative change.

The Permian Meade Peak Member of the Phosphoria Formation was examined at four localities in this investigation. Fossils were collected at each locality. The four collecting localities visited in this investigation are: Brazier Canyon, Utah, Montpelier Canyon, Idaho, Coal Canyon, Wyoming, and Cokeville, Wyoming. The environment of deposition of the Meade Peak Member in the study area is inferred to have been an outer shelf or basin characterized by moderately deep and quiet water. This has aided reconstruction of life habits, population dynamics, and growth characteristics of the examined species. The articulate brachiopod Leiorhynchoidea weeksi is inferred to have attached itself to the substrate by means of a pedicle. The observed variability in the sulcus of this species is assumed to have been influenced by intraspecific competition, which may reflect partitioning of nutrient resources at different levels in the water above the substrate. The articulate brachiopod Lissochonetes ostiolatus probably assumed an unattached existence, lying free on the substrate. Several population samples exhibited stunted growth relative to the L. ostiolatus population sample from Montpelier Canyon. Two environmental variants possibly contributed to the inhibition of growth. These are negative Eh, inferred from the associated organic matter in the lithologies, and competition for space. Lingula carbonaria an inarticulate brachiopod, is thought to have had an infaunal mode of life. A population sample of L. carbonaria from Cokeville exhibits substantially larger morphologic mean sizes than two other population samples. These differences can be explained by the fact the sandy lithology from which the larger collection was taken was associated with conditions which facilitated growth. Also, availability of phosphate, inferred from the P2O5 content of the lithology, probably accelerated growth because inarticulates utilize calcium phosphate as shell material. Orbiculoidea missouriensis is an inarticulate brachiopod. It is inferred to have been attached to the substrate by a pedicle. OF the three population samples of O. missouriensis analyzed, the sample from Brazier Canyon displays larger morphologic mean sizes. This is interpreted as indicating that reducing conditions, inferred from associated organic matter, were milder in that environment. The gastropod bablyonites ferrieri displaysa a low, expanded from, and is thought to have crawled over the surface of the sediment. The food source of this gastropod is not known, but may have been algae, carrion, detritus, or soft-bodied invertebrates. Two bivalves collected are assumed to have been shallow burrowing, labial palp feeders. Both Nuculopsis montpelierensis and polidevcia obesa represent this mode of life. Of the two population samples of P. obesa examined, the one from Cokeville displays larger morphologic means. The environmental stimuli proposed for this difference is competition and an inferred softer substrate in the montpelier assemblage. The bivalve Edmondia phosphatica is inferred to have been a shallow burrowing, siphonate species. Streblochondria montpelierensis and Aviculopecten phosphaticus are bivalves related to modern pectenoids. S. montpelierensis is assumed to have been a byssally attached epifaunal bivalve. The environmental factors influencing the morphologic variation are also inferred to have affected size-frequency distributions and survivorship curves. The effects of reducing conditions have resulted in higher juvenille mortality and/or inhibited growth. Coarser substrates have yielded population samples that exhibit negatively skewed distributions, whereas finer-grained substrates have yielded positively skewed distributions. Growth curves constructed for each population sample generally show a decline in growth rate with age. Some linear trends are noted. Growth lines were used to infer an approximate life span for each species. Conservative approximations of the life spans of the examined species are: L. weeksi, 9 years; L. ostiolatus, 5 years; L. carbonaria, 8 years; A. phosphaticus, 4 years; O. missouriensis, 2.3 years; P. obesa, 5 years; and B. ferrieri, 3.4 years.