Preface: haute literacy -- Introduction: literacy, gender, and the rhetorical work of editing -- Between the sheets: editing and the making of a New Yorker ethos -- "The precision of knives," or more than just commas -- Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, and other women's magazines -- Conclusion: lady editors and the embodiment of style -- Afterword: Katharine White's bequest, or ruminations on an archive