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

Carolyn L. Karcher

Published by Duke University Press 1998

The First Woman in the Republic

A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child

Carolyn L. Karcher

In the series New Americanists

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822398387

Overview
Contents

About this book

For half a century Lydia Maria Child was a household name in the United States. Hardly a sphere of nineteenth-century life can be found in which Lydia Maria Child did not figure prominently as a pathbreaker. Although best known today for having edited Harriet A. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, she pioneered almost every department of nineteenth-century American letters—the historical novel, the short story, children’s literature, the domestic advice book, women’s history, antislavery fiction, journalism, and the literature of aging. Offering a panoramic view of a nation and culture in flux, this innovative cultural biography (originally published by Duke University Press in 1994) recreates the world as well as the life of a major nineteenth-figure whose career as a writer and social reformer encompassed issues central to American history.

Author / Editor information

Carolyn L. Karcher is Professor of English, American Studies, and Women’s Studies at Temple University.

Reviews

"A monumental scholarly achievement."—Joan Hedrick, author of Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life

"The definitive biography of a major figure in American literary and political history.—Richard Slotkin, author of Gunfighter Nation

"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

“Child’s was a ‘household name’ during her lifetime, Carolyn Karcher writes, . . . yet since then her works and influence have been all but ‘erased from history.’ Ms. Karcher hopes to restore that reputation and to familiarize the modern reader with Child’s writings through a literary biography based on ‘extensive quotation and detailed literary analysis.’ Ms. Karcher’s goal is an admirable one; Child’s importance and influence should be reasserted.”

-- New York Times Book Review

“Karcher convincingly argues that Child deserves recognition as one of the handful of leading women intellectuals of her day: indeed, of leading intellectuals of either sex.”

-- London Review of Books

“Karcher details Child’s life in a thoroughly researched manner that emphasizes Child’s own writings.”

-- Library Journal

“Karcher has prodigiously researched nineteenth-century life in America to place her subject in historical context for this definitive biography.”

-- Publishers Weekly

“Karcher’s biography of Child is a monumentally thorough scholarly work.”

-- Women's Review of Books

“Lydia Maria Child’s rich and expansive life has finally been accorded the voluminous treatment it deserves.”

-- American Historical Review

“This valuable portrait of a complex and talented woman may be most notable for indicating the extent to which she was of—rather than ahead of—her time.”

-- Kirkus Reviews

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Chronology of Lydia Maria Child Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xxvi
Prologue: A Passion for Books Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Author of Hobomok Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
2 Rebels and "Rivals": Self Portraits of a Conflicted Young Artist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
3 The Juvenile Miscellany: The Creation of an American Children's Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
4 A Marriage of True Minds: Espousing the Indian Cause Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
5 Blighted Prospects: Indian Fiction and Domestic Reality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
6 The Frugal Housewife: Financial Worries and Domestic Advice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
7 Children's Literature and Antislavery: Conservative Medium, Radical Message Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
8 "The First Woman in the Republic" An Antislavery Baptism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
9 An Antislavery Marriage: Careers at Cross-Purposes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
10 The Condition of Women: Double Binds, Unresolved Conflicts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
11 Schisms, Personal and Political Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
12 The National Anti-Slavery Standard: Family Newspaper or Factional Organ? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
13 Letters from New York: The'Invention of a New Literary Genre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
14 Sexuality and Marriage in Fact and Fiction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	320
15 The Progress of Religious Ideas: A "Pilgrimage of Penance" Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	356
16 Autumnal Leaves: Reconsecrated Partnerships, Personal and Political Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	384
17 The Example of John Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	416
18 Child's Civil War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	443
19 Visions of a Reconstructed America: The Freedmen s Book and A Romance of the Republic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	487
20 A Radical Old Age Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	532
21 Aspirations of the World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	573
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	608
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	617
Works of Lydia Maria Child Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	757
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	773

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 844
Illustrations
- Other: 10 b&w photographs

eBook

Published: November 4, 1994
ISBN: 9780822398387