Saturday, Oct 03, 2026 4:00 PM

A Cappella Books welcomes Sarah H. Salter, Teaching Professor in Emory's Writing Program, for an in-store talk and signing in honor of her new book, “Editorial Masculinity and the Sex Work of Print.”

This event is free and open to the public; copies of the book will be available for purchase.

About the Book

This volume recovers early scandals of sexuality shaping the underground press in antebellum New York. In 'racy' newspapers, periodical editors used the form and content of their publications to curate, create, and circulate new ideas about emerging and established social forms, including sexual expression and intimacies. Editors reported obsessively on female sex workers' publicly erotic lives, wavering between the lurid fascination of exposé and the urge to celebrate singularly compelling and disposable women. This study contends with the uneven archiving of these scandalous materials, focusing on The Broadway Belle, and Mirror of the Times (1855), edited by notorious city mysteries novelist George Thompson. This volume follows Thompson's boasting performances of masculine potency and editorial proficiency. Sections chart the rise of personal mythologizing and self-reflexiveness as lingering conventions of professional editorship long after the racy papers faded away. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.



About the Author

Sarah H Salter is a Teaching Professor in Emory's Writing Program. Her research and teaching center US-based periodical histories, digital humanities methods, and the forms and structures of archiving and preservation. “Editorial Masculinity and the Sex Work of Print” is her first book.