The First Woman in the Republic - A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child

"This is a magnificent book. Child's character emerges as a model for what a woman can be."--Jane Tompkins, author of "West of Everything"

List of contents

Illustrations ix

Preface and Acknowledgments xi

Chronology xix

Abbreviations xxvi

Prologue: A Passion for Books 1

1. The Author of Hobomok 16

2. Rebels and "Rivals": Self Portraits of a Conflicted Young Artist 38

3. The Juvenile Miscellany: The Creation of an American Children's Literature 57

4. A Marriage of True Minds: Espousing the Indian Cause 80

5. Blighted Prospects: Indian Fiction and Domestic Reality 101

6. The Frugal Housewife: Financial Worries and Domestic Advice 126

7. Children's Literature and Antislavery: Conservative Medium, Radical Message 151

8. "The First Woman in the Republic": An Antislavery Baptism 173

9. An Antislavery Marriage: Careers at Cross Purposes 195

10. The Conditions of Women: Double Binds, Unresolved Conflicts 214

11. Schisms, Personal and Political 249

12. The National Anti-Slavery Standard: Family Newspaper or Factional Organ? 267

13. Letters from New York: The Invention of a New Literary Genre 295

14. Sexuality and Marriage in Fact and Fiction 320

15. The Progress of Religious Ideas: A "Pilgrimage of Pennance" 356

16. Autumnal Leaves: Reconsecrated Partnerships, Personal and Political 384

17. The Example of John Brown 416

18. Child's Civil War 443

19. Visions of a Reconstructed America: The Freedmen's Book and A Romance of the Republic 487

20. A Radical Old Age 532

21. Aspirations of the World 573

Afterword 608

Notes 617

Works of Lydia Maria Child 757

Index 773

About the author

Carolyn L. Karcher

Product details

• Authors: Carolyn L Karcher, Carolyn L. Karcher
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.03.1998
• EAN: 9780822321637
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-2163-7
• No. of pages: 832
• Dimensions: 174 mm x 253 mm x 38 mm
• Weight: 1411 g
• Series: New Americanists; New Americanists
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; 19. Jahrhundert (1800 bis 1899 n. Chr.), Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, USA, Amerikanische Geschichte, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary, Biography / Autobiography, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century