Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. "EXTRA! EXTRA! Lucy Stone Is Dead!"
Chapter Two. "I Am Sorry It Is a Girl. A Woman's Lot Is So Hard"
Chapter Three. "As Light as Thistle Down"
Chapter Four. "This is Not a World to Sit Down and Whimper In"
Chapter Five. "Whether We Like It or Not, Little Woman, God Made You an Orator"
Chapter Six. "Putting Lucy Stone to Death"
Chapter Seven. "Rock the Cradle Lucy/And Keep the Baby Warm!"
Chapter Eight. Kansas: The Rift Widens
Chapter Nine. "Out of the Terrible Pit"
Chapter Ten. "Every Clean Soul"
Chapter Eleven. "Will the Cause Be Ground to Powder?"
Chapter Twelve. "Another Year for Downright Work"
Chapter Thirteen. "Make the World Better"
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

ANDREA MOORE KERR is a historian and writer. She is currently at work on a historical novel based on Shay's Rebellion. 

Reviews

Stone, a dedicated, pioneering 19th-century suffragist, is zealously championed in this biography, which seeks to bring her out from the shadow cast by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. After working her way through Oberlin College, then a ``hotbed of abolitionism,'' Stone became a paid lecturer for an anti-slavery society, sometimes addressing as many as two thousand people. Soon her interests--and her speeches--shifted to women's suffrage. She continued to tour (and kept her surname) after her marriage to Henry Browne Blackwell. Although Blackwell, as depicted here, was an annoying and financially incompetent man with a dash of charm, Stone was devoted to him and wanted him to stay out of the Civil War ``at any price.'' But feminists became divided among themselves. When women's interest in obtaining the vote flagged in the 1870s, Stone blamed Stanton and Anthony; she found Stanton brilliant, but ``disingenuous and damaging,'' while Anthony's dislike of Stone became almost ``an obsession.'' Although this study lacks narrative fluidity, historian Kerr offers readers much to ponder regarding Stone's place in women's history. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)

Kerr, who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, has written an excellent biography and the first scholarly treatment of Stone, one of the first female public speakers and advocates for abolition and women's rights. Alice S. Blackwell's biography of her mother is out of print, and Elinor Hays's Morning Star (Hippocrene, 1978. reprint of 1961 ed.) is aimed at a popular audience. Kerr utilized manuscript collections, including the Blackwell family papers; printed primary sources; and secondary sources to create a compelling story. She sensitively treats Stone's marriage and the compromises it forced on her. Her analysis, from Stone's point of view, of the split in the women's movement is particularly interesting. Highly recommended for all academic and large public libraries.-- Sharon Firestone, Coll . of Law Lib . , Arizona State Univ. Tempe