79] 



ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 



79 



importance after 1810. The law furnished a diminishing* 

 quota of literati after 1830. On the other hand, the relative 

 importance of journalists and authors proper increased, 

 though not to any remarkable extent. The number of per- 

 sons engaged in the other two important classes, educators 

 including professors and teachers and editors, remained 

 practically constant. 



It was to be expected that the clergy, lawyers and pub- 

 licists would furnish the largest quotas of literati in the 

 days when education was the privilege of the favored few. 

 It was likewise to be expected that, as these groups lost 

 their virtual monopoly of education, their relative promi- 

 nence in the field of letters would decline proportionately. 



TABLE XXIII 

 Occupational Distribution of American Literary Women 



Since such has been the case, it is apparent that education 

 and social position account in large part for the prominence 

 of these occupation classes in the history of American 

 letters. 



The occupation of literary women was studied separately 

 (Table XXIII). Perhaps the most significant fact shown 

 in this table is the large proportion of women whose occu- 

 pation could not be determined. They could not be classed 

 as authors, for authorship was not a profession with them, 



1 Whenever a woman of letters had two occupations of importance, 

 an entry of .5 was made for each occupation. 



