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The Husband and Wife Behind The Magazine
The name Mrs Beeton is generally associated with the writings of fashion in The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. However before she married Mr. Beeton, an editor from London and the owner of the magazine, she was Isabella Mary Mayson. She was born March 14th 1836. She was the oldest of 21 children. As the oldest, she was responsible for taking on the role of a caregiver for her 20 younger siblings. Especially so after her father died. Her mother eventually remarried to a man named Henry Dorling. He was a businessman in Epsom, which required Isabella’s entire family to move to him. Inevitably she left Epsom for the Heidel Institute in Germany. It is here that she found her love of pastry making, a topic that would one day frequent The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. Mrs Beeton exercised her prowess in pastry making as well as childcare in the magazine, as they were topics that she lived as well as knew well. Around the same time she met Samuel Orchart Beeton, the man she would eventually marry and run The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine with. At the time that they met, Samuel was an editor in London. He had accomplished a few achievements as an editor at this time, including editing the first British reprint of Stowe’s The Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Boy’s Own Magazine. Samuel and Isabella married in 1856, forming The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’s leading couple. Isabella’s position in The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine was minimal and probably easily overlooked; she was not yet editing alongside her husband. She started out translating from German to French. But eventually, she was promoted to “editress,” a title today could probably be most synonymous with Editor in Chief. She edited first The Book of Household Management, one of her husband’s most vital editorial projects. This projected is what made the name “Mrs. Beeton” so well known in the first place. Mrs. Beeton eventually was known for her writings of fashion columns in the magazine, of which she encouraged her readers to dress plainly, spend frugally and to shop for oneself as infrequently as possible. Mrs. Beeton herself also dressed plainly, as most of her clothes were homemade. However, as she was always interested in French fashion, they formed an alliance with another magazine-publishing husband and wife duo, the Goubauds, a French couple. Their magazine, Le Moniteur de la Mode, was a quite successful and expensive in Paris and inspiring to Mrs Beeton. It was Madame Goubaud that encouraged Mrs. Beeton to give fashion advice to her readers, and even have the confidence to criticize and correct fashion mistakes her readers would write to her about. The Goubauds would provide tips, patterns, and helpful advice to the Beetons to revamp their content. The Beeton’s mindset in writing fashion columns was to provide fashion advice that would allow women to dress at a standard that met the standard of fashion trends of that day and age, without going over her budget. Samuel and Isabella Beeton were only married for 9 years, as she has passed in 1865 and was replaced as editor by Mrs. Myra Browne. Mrs. Browne took the pen name of “The Silkworm,” and voiced her drastically differing opinions in her writings. Unlike Mrs. Beeton, she did not emphasize the importance of modest spending or dressing. Shortly after Isabella’s death, Samuel Beeton sold the magazine as well as Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management to a rival editor, Ward, Lock and Tyler. Mr. Beeton was kept as editor of The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine until news of a sexual scandal of his broke out. Ward, Lock, and Tyler let him go in 1875 because of this scandal.