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

by Carolyn L. Karcher (Author)

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.

Back Jacket

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"

Author Biography

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