Who Wrote The Female American?: The Noble Brothers, Circulating Libraries, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel

Abstract:Since its publication in 1767, readers have wondered who wrote The Female American; or, the Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield. I argue that eighteenth-century readers and reviewers would have understood The Female American in relation to a particular business model—that of the publisher/bookseller/library proprietor—rather than as the work of a particular author. Yet, through its connection with its publisher Francis Noble, The Female American might, I suggest, have a story to tell us about authorship, not about its own authorship, but about the making of one of the preeminent “Authors” of the eighteenth century: Daniel Defoe.