| Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855-96 Contributor(s): Gifford, Carolyn (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0252021398 ISBN-13: 9780252021398 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $61.38 Product Type: Hardcover Published: August 1995 Annotation: The journal of Frances E. Willard had been hidden away in a cupboard at the national headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and its importance eluded Willard's biographers. Writing Out My Heart publishes for the first time substantial portions of the forty-nine volumes rediscovered in 1982, opening a window on the remarkable inner life of this great public figure and casting her in a new light. No other female political leader of the period left a private record like this. Written during her teens, twenties, and fifties, the journal documents the creation of Frances Willard's self. At the same time, it often reads like a good novel. It stands as one of the most explicit and painful records in the nineteenth century of one woman's coming to terms with her love for women in a heterosexual world. Other sections reveal what impelled Willard to reform - the nature and depth of the religious dimension of her life - a dimension not yet adequately explored by any biographer. Here we see her growing commitment to the "cause of woman". The volumes written in her late middle age give insight into the years when, world famous, she was part of the transatlantic network of reform, battling ill health, dealing with controversy in the WCTU, and grieving for her mother, a lifelong figure of emotional support. This finale concludes one of the most fascinating of the journal's themes: the nineteenth-century confrontation with sickness and death. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Women |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 94043878 |
| Series: Women in American History |
| Physical Information: 1.36" H x 6.33" W x 9.35" (1.94 lbs) 510 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Gay |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Frances E. Willard's powerful leadership of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) made her one of the most commanding figures in the reform movements of the nineteenth century. World renowned and a force to be reckoned with, Willard grappled publicly and private with difficult issues, including temperance, slavery, women's rights, and her own sexuality. These selections from her forty-nine-volume journal reveal the private and confidential side of Willard for the first time. She comes to life in these pages--a person of character, passion, and self-determination who came to represent the woman of the dawning era. Supplemented by an in-depth introduction and generous annotations, Writing Out My Heart sheds new light on an extraordinary individual and the lives of women in nineteenth-century America. |