Celebrating Women Writers!

Spice and the Devil's Cave

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:48:24 GMT

I am happy to announce online edition # 313:

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hewes/spice/spice.html
"Spice and the Devil's Cave"
by Agnes Danforth Hewes (Mrs. Laurence Ilsley Hewes) (1874-1963).
New York: A. A. Knopf, 1930. Copyright not renewed. [Newbery Honor Book, 1931]

"Spice and the Devil's Cave" is set in the 1490's. It is a story of the spice trade, and of Portugal's search to find a new sea route to India by going around the "Devil's Cave" -- the Cape of Good Hope. Cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and other spices that people today buy in any large grocery store, with little thought of their source, were a valuable, sought-after resource. The possibility of a new trade route was enough to shake empires. Hewes says "of all the varied streams of history that have poured thru Syria, the one that has most attracted me is that of trade, especially the trade that brought the Occident and the Orient together. From the first time I saw a string of camels come in from Damascus, the romance of trade laid hold of me." (Girlhood in Syria, p. 21)

In writing about the Middle East, Agnes Danforth Hewes wrote about a world she knew, one she and her mother were born into, in which she had spent her childhood. I was able to find some details about her in "A Girlhood in Syria", a collection compiled by her daughter, Mary Calhoun Hewes Dosch (Edinburgh, Printed by G. Wilson, 1967). According to "Girlhood", Agnes Danforth Hewes was born in Tripoli, Syria, on March 30, 1874. (The Davis family genealogy website gives her birthdate as 30 MAR 1872 and her sister Helen Danforth's as 1 NOV 1874, so there may be some question about this birthdate.) Agnes' parents were medical missionaries: Dr. Galen Bancroft Danforth, and Emily Reynolds Calhoun Danforth. Sadly, Emily and her husband both died young: Galen on July 9, 1875, of a tropical disease, and Emily on January 13, 1881. After Galen's death, Emily was in poor health. According to Agnes, "I was left entirely to the care of my dear good kind nurse and to the other house servants... So, naturally, I grew up speaking Arabic." Her maternal grandmother, Emily Pitkin Reynolds Calhoun, was away visiting America with her husband, missionary Dr. Simeon Howard Calhoun, and other members of the Calhoun family. Rev. Calhoun died in Buffalo, NY, on December 14, 1876. Agnes' grandmother, Emily Pitkin Reynolds Calhoun, returned to the family home in Abeih, Mt. Lebanon, Syria, to care for her daughter and granddaughter. Agnes writes "When my grandmother returned to live with my mother, she found a little granddaughter who couldn't answer her English -- or shall I say American -- greeting!" (Girlhood in Syria, p. 20-21) From then on, Agnes was brought up by her maternal grandmother at Abeih.

A family friend wrote of a visit to Abeih: "What a walk that was! You know the whole setting of the picture -- the rugged mountains, the steep zigzag path, the flowers and verdure of May, the wide expanse of sea in the background, that in the gorgeous sunset seemed verily the 'sea of glass mingled with fire.' [As we climbed the rugged path] ever and anon we stopped to rest, sitting down on some projecting rock and looking back upon the glorious sea and sky in the West that seemed the very gate of heaven..."

Agnes Danforth Hewes was deeply inspired by her childhood home. "My fairy godmother's priceless gift to me was to let me live my first twelve years in Syria. That, in a nutshell, is my feeling about Syria! That is why I wrote my first book, because I loved Syria so much -- its magnificent brilliant scenery, its dear warm-hearted people, its customs come down from the Bible times, its beautiful dignified speech, its rich historical background -- that I wanted American children to love it, to see it with my eyes. I felt as if no one could afford to miss knowing my Syria. I feel so still." In later years, when readers commented on the vividness and accuracy of her descriptions of Syria, she declared that the land of her birth was "written in my heart."

What makes "Spice and the Devil's Cave" particularly interesting is the mixing of cultures that Hewes describes. One of the main characters in the book is a Jew, Abel Zakuto, who lives in Lisbon. A major theme in the book is the shifting treatment of the Jews under Manoel I of Portugal. Because of his interest in exploration, explorers Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco da Gama, and the youthful Magellan meet at Abel's house to exchange the latest news about "the Way of the Spices"; Nicolo Conti, a young Venetian shipbuilder, offers his assistance; and there a young girl, from a Muslim background, finds shelter. These entwined cultures -- Jewish, Portuguese, Venetian, and Muslim -- are generally treated by Agnes Danforth Hewes with respect. Portuguese and Venetians express their dismay at the expulsion of the Jews; da Gama, originally proposing to bring Christianity to the East, returns with a greater appreciation of other religions and cultures.

During her life, Agnes Danforth Hewes travelled far from her beloved Syria. She apparently graduated from Elmira College, New York, which has been characterized as "the mother of women's colleges." She married Laurence Ilsley Hewes of New Hampshire in 1901, and had several children between 1902 and 1916. Her first book, "A Boy of the Lost Crusade", appeared in 1923. Twelve more historical novels for young readers followed, several of them dealing with exploration and expansion along early trade routes, and the clash of eastern and western cultures. At some point, Agnes Danforth Hewes moved to San Francisco, California, where she died on September 30, 1963.

Agnes Danforth Hewes left us an example of tolerance and a heritage of historical interest in "Spice and the Devil's Cave" that is still relevant. Some of her other books, such as "Two oceans to Canton; the story of the old China trade" (New York, A.A. Knopf, 1944) and "Jackhammer; drill runners of the mountain highways" (New York, A. A. knopf, 1942) were not copyright renewed and could potentially be republished online.

In Times Like These

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:32:59 GMT

I am happy to announce Celebration Edition # 312
"In Times Like These"
by Nellie L. McClung (1873-1951)
Toronto: McLeod & Allen, 1915
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mcclung/times/times.html

'"I will not have my wife sit in Parliament," another man cried in alarm, when he was asked to sign a petition giving women full right of franchise. We tried to soothe his fears. We delicately and tactfully declared that his wife was safe. She would not be asked to go to Parliament by any of us – we gave him our word that she was immune from public duties of that nature, for we knew the lady and her limitations... But he would not sign." -- Nellie McClung, "In Times Like These"

Nellie McClung was a feminist, politician, and social activist -- and she was funny.

Nellie Letitia Mooney McClung (October 20, 1873 - September 1, 1951) was one of the most important leaders of Canada's first wave of feminism. Her great causes were women's suffrage and temperance. She is still remembered for her role in the famous "Person's Case" in which Canadian women were legally declared persons, in 1929.

Born in Grey County, Ontario, Nellie moved with her family to a homestead in the Souris Valley of Manitoba when she was seven years old. As a young woman, she joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which advocated reforms to address the social and health problems caused by alcohol, and spearheaded the campaign for women's right to vote. In 1896 Nellie married Robert Wesley McClung, the son of another WCTU member. The marriage was a supportive one: Nellie continued to be politically active, as well as publishing sixteen books and raising five children. She wrote: "Ideas do not break up homes, but lack of ideas. ... the happiest marriage is the one where the husband and wife come to regard each other as the dearest friend, the most congenial companion."

In 1911 the McClungs moved to Winnipeg where Nellie was involved in the WCTU, the Winnipeg Political Equality League, and the Canadian Women's Press Club. As a speaker on suffrage and temperance, McClung combined quick wits with a strong sense of humour and a genuine affection for her audience. She was energetic, outgoing, and knew how to make her points both effective and memorable by wrapping them in humor. It is clear she was a compelling speaker. In 1914, McClung and other reformers put on a play called "The Women's Parliament", in which Nellie played a leading role, parodying Premier Rodmond Roblin. Performances were packed; Nellie's satire was met with uproarious laughter by enthusiastic audiences. Her work in 1914 set the stage for Roblin's subsequent defeat.

In 1914 the McClungs moved again. In Edmonton, Alberta, Nellie McClung continued her political and literary careers. She joined the Edmonton Equal Franchise League which fought for women's rights, prohibition and factory safety legislation. Nellie was active in campaigning and speaking in Canada and the United States. In 1916 the new Liberal government gave the vote to Manitoba women. Women in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia gained the right to vote in provincial elections the same year, and other provinces followed.

However, the years of the first world war were difficult ones for McClung. A committed Christian, she had believed that pacifism was fundamental to a truly Christian life. As Canada entered the war, Nellie and many of her friends were torn apart over the question of whether to oppose Germany. It was no academic issue: Nellie's eldest son, Jack, "a boy who has never had a gun in his hands, whose ways are gentle and full of peace" went overseas to fight. She could not bear to believe that the lives of Jack, and so many other boys, could be meaninglessly wasted. Nellie accepted the war reluctantly, in the belief that even greater evil would come of not fighting. She also saw that war-time presented opportunities for women to advance the suffrage and temperance platforms, and expand their involvement in previously male-dominated areas of society. Her book "In Times Like These" is a collection of essays and lecture material, reflecting her thinking before and during the early years of the war.

The book touches on a wide variety of issues, with McClung's characteristic humor. In "Should Women Think?" McClung points out: "The world has never been partial to the thinking woman – the wise ones have always foreseen danger. ... If women learned to read there seemed to be a possibility that some day some good man might come home and find his wife reading, and the dinner not ready – and nothing could be imagined more horrible than that!" But, she says, "If God had not intended us to think, he would not have given us our intelligence. It would be a shabby trick, too, to give women brains to think, with no hope of results, for thinking is just an aggravation if nothing comes of it." Religious conviction was an engine that empowered Nellie to political action: '"Thy will be done" is a call to fight -- to fight for better conditions, for moral and physical health, for sweeter manners, cleaner laws, for a fair chance for everyone, even women!' This call for justice is repeated consistently throughout her work. Nellie appeals "to men and women everywhere who love a fair deal", "fair play", and the "square thing".

The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, the Shoe King's Son

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:02:00 GMT

I am happy to announce Celebration Edition # 311:

"The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, the Shoe King's Son"
by Catherine Besterman (1908-)
Illustrations by Warren Chappell (1904-1991)
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1947. Copyright not renewed.
Newbery Honor Book, 1948
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/besterman/quest/quest.html

There is a slight Alice-in-Wonderland quality to this Newbery Honor Book. Things are never quite as you might expect them to be. Young Johnny is sent off by his shoemaker father to visit an unknown relative. During his travels, he makes friends with talking dogs, teaches bears to dance, and tries to find a pair of seven-league boots for a tricky cat. All in a normal day, yes? I think my favorite characters were the bears. Johnny is a basically friendly boy, who wants to get along with others, although he occasionally bends the truth a bit. In Johnny's topsy-turvy world, the oddest things can happen.

If you are enchanted by this book, consider working on its sequel, "The extraordinary education of Johnny Longfoot in his search for the magic hat", Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1949. Both books were written by Catherine Besterman, with illustrations by Warren Chappell. Their copyrights were not renewed, so they can be reprinted on-line. I was able to find this description of the sequel:

"Johnny must learn many things other boys didn't know. (His family) must find him a most unusual tutor who could teach him arithmetic, algebra, Egyptian, Greek and modern history, and several foreign languages, including Chinese. But where could they ever find a teacher who knew so many things? Finally it was decided that the only one with so much knowledge was - a cat!"

Read and enjoy!

Runner of the Mountain Tops (A Newbery Honor Book, 1940)

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:38:48 GMT

I'm happy to announce Celebration Edition # 310:

"Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz"
by Mabel Louise Robinson (1874-1962)
With decorations by Lynd Ward (1905-1985)
New York, Random House, 1939. Copyright not renewed.
A Newbery Honor Book, 1940.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/robinsonml/runner/runner.html

I'm feeling inspired, these days, to work on Newbery books. Two of Mabel Robinson's books were listed as Newbery Honor recipients: her young adult novel "Bright Island" (considered the best of her books) in 1938, and her biography of Louis Agassiz, "Runner of the Mountain Tops", in 1940. The copyright to "Bright Island" was renewed, but not the copyright to "Runner of the Mountain Tops".

"Runner of the Mountain Tops" is a biography of renowned scientist Louis Agassiz. Born in Switzerland, educated in Germany, Agassiz was a vibrant, outgoing boy and man who found the world around him endlessly fascinating. Gifted with boundless energy, intelligence, and charm, he radiated enthusiasm, never happier than when he was sharing his ideas with others and challenging them to extend their horizons. Robinson's account is of interest to anyone who likes science, the history of science, or, for that matter, gifted children.

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz is a scientific hero, with an enthralling life full of challenges and achievements. He was born on May 28, 1807, the eldest surviving son of a minister and his wife in the village of Môtier, Switzerland. They were not wealthy, and their village offered few resources for the education of a gifted boy. Nonetheless, Louis' family sent him to school and university. Louis was an energetic and determined student, earning a Doctorate in Philosophy (focusing on natural history and botany) and a medical degree. Initially, Agassiz focused his considerable abilities on ichthyology -- the study of living and fossil fish. He emphasized careful observation, brilliantly organizing myriad details into a new classification system. His 5-volume work, "Recherches sur les poissons fossiles" ("Research on Fossil Fish") took years to complete, and was magnificently illustrated by artist Joseph Dinkel. It provided a solid foundation for the building of Agassiz' reputation.

When Jean de Charpentier suggested to Louis Agassiz that the alpine rocks of the Jura Mountains might have been moved by glaciers, Agassiz was skeptical. However, given such an intriguing problem, he could not resist investigating. He climbed and explored extensively, constructing a hut on one of the Aar glaciers to investigate the structure and movements of the ice. Agassiz' alpine adventures should delight even the most thrill-seeking boy. In 1840, Agassiz published his two volume "Etudes sur les glaciers" ("Study on Glaciers"), and proposed that a vast "Ice Age" had covered most of the earth in the recent geological past -- a radical idea stimulating much new work.

In 1842-1846 Louis Agassiz issued his "Nomenclator Zoologicus", classifying (with references) all the names used in zoology for genera and groups. He argued, also, that it was impossible to effectively classify creatures without taking into account factors such as their succession in past geological ages and their geographical distribution upon the earth. ("Essay on Classification", 1851.)

In spite of major achievements systematizing and extending knowledge in the areas of zoology, glaciology, and geology, Agassiz had little hope of advancement in Europe. He travelled to American in 1846, where he lectured widely. After two years, he was offered a position as professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University. In America Agassiz became a renowned teacher, a promoter and popularizer of both natural science and education. One of Agassiz' dreams was to create a great museum of natural history. He lobbied constantly for funds and resources, and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard opened in 1859 as a result of his tireless efforts.

Although other scientists drew upon Agassiz' work in support of Darwinism and the new and radical theory of evolution, Agassiz himself rejected Darwin's ideas out of hand. The son of a minister, believing deeply that God's Divine Plan was embodied in nature, Agassiz found Darwin's ideas too painful to consider.

Many of Agassiz' ideas have been superseded, but Agassiz's works on living and fossil fish and on glaciers remain classics. His work on glaciers revolutionized geology. He trained and influenced a generation of American zoologists and paleontologists, shaped the practice and education of American science, and made science widely accessible to men -- and women -- "in the street."

It's a pity that in "Runner of the Mountain Tops", Robinson's enthusiasm for her subject overruns her ability to tell a compelling story. At one point, I checked: the word "genius" appeared 41 times in the book, the word "brilliant", 31 times! Robinson spends too much time rhapsodizing about Agassiz, when she could be giving us more specifics.

And Louis Agassiz did have failings. He was appallingly poor at focusing on the details of day-to-day life -- things like budgeting for the support of his assistants, or considering the financial and emotional needs of his wife and children. I am unfailingly irritated by the attitude that the weaknesses of a great man can be overlooked, because he was a great man. Too often, Robinson seems to suggest that Agassiz' early assistants should have been overjoyed to work long hours for little or no pay, and his first wife should have been happy to accommodate any number of creatures and people in her home, in addition to her three small children. Personally, I can't help feeling considerable sympathy for that homesick first wife, with her first baby, in a remote town where she didn't speak the language.

Yet, in the end, in spite of such weaknesses, "Runner of the Mountain Tops" is worth attention -- both the book and the man that the book is named after, Louis Agassiz.

The Windy Hill (Newbery Honor Book, 1922)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:54:44 GMT

The new Newbery and Caldecott winners were recently awarded by the American Libraries Association, and it seems only fitting to celebrate by announcing an on-line edition of one of the earliest Newbery honor books:

"The Windy Hill"
by Cornelia Meigs (1884-1973)
New York: The MacMillan Company, c1921.
A Newbery Honor Book, 1922.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/meigs/hill/hill.html

Three of Cornelia Meigs' books were chosen as Newbery honor books: "The Windy Hill" (c1921), "Clearing Weather" (c1928), and "Swift Rivers" (c1932). Meigs finally won the Newbery Medal for her biography of Louisa May Alcott, "Invincible Louisa" (c1933). Her books are still worth reading. Meigs makes American history vivid and personal. On the back of a dust jacket, she describes the childhood that laid the basis for her storytelling skills.

"My father was an alluring story teller and had a great store of tales to hand on to his children. His father and grandfather before him had evidently been possessed of the same art and had thus kept vividly alive the stories of a remote past. All of us have heard our elders discuss the Civil War until we have learned much of the events and atmosphere of that time. But in our house the War of 1812 was just as familiar, the difficulties with the Barbary Pirates were almost as well known: while my father knew tales, heard only at second or third hand, which went all the way back to the Revolution. ... We lived, moreover, in the comparatively new West, where the Indians had disappeared only a generation ago and where a nice old lady, who was our neighbor, had made the overland trip to California during the gold rush and could tell us endlessly of her adventures by the way. Is it any great wonder that the history of our country became for me personal and fascinating record about which I could never hear and study enough! ... Such was the background of my early years, out of which all my stories must have come."

In "The Windy Hill", two teenagers have come to visit an uncle, who is troubled and upset. A neighbor tells Oliver and Janet stories that help them to understand the historical background underlying the present conflict in their family. These family stories also help Oliver to understand his own internal experience. The stubborn pride and impulsiveness of his ancestors exist in him as well, and by the end of the book, Oliver sees their consequences a little more clearly, and achieves greater self-control. He begins to understand that the first unwitting step down a road may take someone far from where they meant to go -- that, as Meigs points out, "a person thinks it a little thing when he first confuses right with wrong". Kindness, consideration for others, and acting on behalf of the community, are virtues that Meigs values, and in her stories, meanness and dishonesty eventually lead to their own downfall.

"The Windy Hill" was published in 1921, so its copyright has expired. Between 1923 and 1963, authors had to explicitly renew the copyright of each book to extend their copyrights to the fullest possible term. Since the 1964 Newberys were awarded to books published in 1963, they were subject to the explicit renewal requirement. After 1963, copyrights renewals occurred automatically.

I was curious enough to look up the copyright renewals of the Newbery Honor and Medal books published between 1923 and 1963, in Stanford University's copyright renewals database ( http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/ ) and in the United States Copyright Office's database ( http://cocatalog.loc.gov ).

I was excited to find that more than a dozen post-1923 Newbery Honor Books, and two post-1923 Newbery medalists, appear not to have been renewed. Assuming that there aren't any errors, in the databases, or in my searches of them, it should be legal to put the following books online. (It's always good to double-check: I found two renewals which did not appear in the Stanford database, when I double-checked it against the print version :-) Eleven of the books are by women, five by men. I would be happy to give the books by women a home at the Celebration, if anyone wants to work on them.

* 1964 Medal Winner: It's Like This, Cat (c1963) by Emily Neville (Harper)

* 1952 Honor Book:
o The Defender by Nicholas Kalashnikoff (Scribner)

* 1950 Honor Book:
o The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz (Longmans)

* 1949 Honor Book:
o My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (Random House)

* 1948 Honor Book:
o The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot by Catherine Besterman (Bobbs-Merrill)

* 1947 Honor Book:
o The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell (Harper)

* 1940 Honor Book:
o Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz by Mabel Louise Robinson (Random House)

* 1935 Honor Book:
o Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic by Hilda Von Stockum (Harper)

* 1934 Honor Books:
o New Land by Sarah Schmidt (McBride)
o Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)

* 1931 Honor Book:
o Spice and the Devil's Cave by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)

* 1930 Honor Book:
o Jumping-Off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely (Longmans)

* 1929 Honor Books:
o Tod of the Fens by Elinor Whitney (Macmillan)

* 1926 Honor Book:
o The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)

* 1925 Honor Book:
o The Dream Coach (1924) by Anne Parrish (Macmillan), illustrated by Dillwyn Parrish

* 1924 Medal Winner: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
[the original edition was not renewed, but there are renewal records for later editions which would apply to new materials/illustrations ]

Best wishes to everyone in 2008! Mary

A Christmas cake in four quarters; Keo the Otter

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:58:50 GMT

"Season of light, season of cheer, season of peace,
May it last throughout the year."

The kids are singing and dashing about the house; I should probably bake some cookies, but instead I'm messing about with the computer. Along with my good wishes, I would like to send you two new books to read for Christmas.

A Christmas cake in four quarters
by Lady (Mary Anne) Barker (1831-1911)
London & New York: Macmillan and Co., 1871.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barker/christmas/christmas.html

This book contains anecdotes of Christmas in four different countries: England, Jamaica, India, and New Zealand. Lady Barker had lived in all of them. She was born in Jamaica and spent her childhood in Great Britain. Her first husband, George Robert Barker, fought in the Crimea and the Indian mutiny, and was knighted and promoted to Brigadier-General for his leadership at the Siege of Lucknow. Lady Barker joined him at Simla in 1860, but he died only a few months later. She then returned to England, where she met her second husband, Frederick Napier Broome. They married on 21 June 1865, and spent the next “three supremely happy years” sheep-farming in New Zealand. After a disastrous winter, they sold out and returned to England. There Lady Barker began to write, reworking a set of letters to her sister Jessie for publication as "Station Life in New Zealand" (1870). Her adventures did not stop there. Broome became Colonial Secretary of Natal in 1875, and Lady Barker travelled with him to Mauritius, Western Australia, Barbados, and Trinidad. As Lady Barker and later as Lady Broome (Broome was knighted on 3 July 1884) Mary Anne published 22 books, including "A Christmas Cake in Four Quarters" (1871). Celebrating Christmas Day at Steventon, an old English home, the adults amuse the children with stories of Christmases in other lands. The book is more interesting today for the details of life in various countries, than as a children's story: anecdotes include a spooky tale of play-acting ghosts, a charming Christmas morning in Jamaica, and a chilling account of survival during the Sepoy Mutiny.

Keo the otter
by Virgie Bernhardt (fl.1937)
Illustrations by Marjee Peters (fl.1937)
Milwaukee: E. M. Hale and Company, 1937. Copyright not renewed.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bernhardt/otter/otter.html

Since the four quarters were more suited to adult readers than to children, I've put up a short children's book as well. "Keo the Otter" is a pleasant little book with lots of illustrations and short descriptions of otter life. I hope it will be enjoyed.

Best wishes to all,
Mary

The Tragedie of Mariam

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:12:38 GMT

I am happy to announce Celebration Edition #306:

"The tragedie of Mariam, the faire queene of Jewry written by that learned, vertuous, and truly noble ladie, E. C."
by Lady Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639)
London: Thomas Creede, for Richard Hawkins, 1613.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/cary/mariam/mariam.html

Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, Lady Falkland (1585-1639) was a poet, translator, and dramatist. Precocious and studious, she was associated with the literary circle of Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. A daughter's biography, "The Lady Falkland: Her Life (ca. 1643-1650)", credits her with the authorship of a number of poems and translations. (It also makes her the first woman writer to be the subject of a literary biography.) Various writers dedicated works to her, attesting to her literary reputation. Unfortunately, most of these have been lost.

Her surviving play, "The Tragedie of Mariam", was written as a closet drama around 1602-1604. It was intended for private reading rather than public performance. When it was finally published in 1613, Elizabeth Cary became the first woman dramatist to be published in England. In "The Tragedie of Mariam", Elizabeth Cary adapts and expands upon the basic plot and characters of an ancient story of evil King Herod and his wife Mariam.

Her play examines the ways in which women exert power through relationships, in a society where they have little formal power. Cary contrasts a range of female characters, including Mariam (Herod's current wife), Salome (Herod's sister, married to Constabarus), Doris (Herod's divorced wife) and Alexandra (Mariam's mother). Through Mariam and Salome, in particular, Cary raises key questions of integrity and honesty, and asks whether emotional honesty can survive in a marriage of disparate power.

In the first half of the play, Herod is believed to be dead. The chorus of the play warns that "To heare a tale with eares prejudicate, It spoiles the judgement, and corrupts the senses ... [and] makes us take for truth ten thousand lies." In their hope that Herod is dead, others reveal feelings and secrets that were carefully hidden from him. Herod's return in the second half of the play endangers them.

Mariam, believing that Herod is dead, can admit to herself that "that Love which once on him was firmely set" is now turbulently mixed with anger and revulsion. After divorcing his first wife and marrying Mariam, Herod has killed Mariam's brother and her grandfather to ensure his uncontested right (through Mariam) to the throne. Herod is also violently possessive and left instructions for Mariam to be killed if he died. If Herod is dead, Mariam is released from an irreconcilable conflict: how can she be a virtuous and obedient wife to a man she now hates? When he returns, the question becomes: Will chastity be a sufficient virtue to protect her, if she refuses to please?

The chorus articulates an essential question of Cary's play: Does a wife give up all right to her own thoughts as well as her own body, when she marries? Do both become the 'possessions' of her husband?

When to their Husbands they themselves doe bind,
Doe they not wholy give themselves away?
Or give they but their body not their mind,
Reserving that though best, for others pray?
No sure, their thoughts no more can be their owne,
And therefore should to none but one be knowne.

Then she usurpes upon anothers right,
That seekes to be by publike language grac't:
And though her thoughts reflect with purest light,
Her mind if not peculiar is not chast.
For in a wife it is no worse to finde,
A common body, then a common minde.

When Herod returns, in the second half of the play, it is clear that he shares the view of the chorus. When Mariam chooses personal integrity, and truthfulness about her feelings, over wifely obedience, openly displaying her grief and anger at his actions, Herod exclaims:

Oh thine eye
Is pure as heaven, but impure thy minde,
And for impuritie shall Mariam die.

Herod's sister Salome appears in startling contrast to Mariam throughout the play. Whereas Mariam is repeatedly referred to as innocent and chaste, Salome is flagrantly sexual and amoral. Having found a new man to desire, her only concern is how to rid herself of her previous choice: she has already betrayed one husband to his death, and attempted to break Hebrew law to divorce another. Thriving on lies and blackmail, Salome has tried to turn Herod against Mariam in the past. In one scene, I imagine her carefully admiring her nails, as she casually offers the vacillating Herod advice on how to kill Mariam, "Then let the fire devoure her."

Repeatedly, characters reiterate that all Salome's plotting, even Herod's jealously and violence, could not have harmed Mariam had she been willing to dissemble and show Herod a pleasing face. Mariam herself says:

Had not my selfe against my selfe conspirde,
No plot: no adversarie from without
Could Herods love from Mariam have retirde,
Or from his heart have thrust my semblance out.

It is this which truly makes this play "The Tragedie of Mariam", in the classic sense of tragedy. Mariam's death results inevitably from her own character, from the very qualities that make her admirable to us today, her personal integrity and honesty.

Elizabeth Cary's personal history suggests that questions of integrity, honesty, and personal voice, versus wifely humility and obedience, were important in her own life as well as in her play. Elizabeth was betrothed to Sir Henry Cary in her teens. Sir Henry went off to the Netherlands to fight in the Protestant wars against Spain not long after their wedding. The new bride continued to live in her family's home for several years, finally joining the Cary household in 1603. During their marriage, Elizabeth bore 11 children by her husband. However, religious differences put an increasing strain upon their relationship. Henry was a strict Protestant. In 1622, he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, and moved the family to Dublin. There he was notable for his cruel treatment of Irish Catholics. Elizabeth's early attraction to Catholicism increased over time, and she was appalled at his actions in Ireland. The couple separated and Elizabeth returned to England in 1625. In 1626 Elizabeth professed Catholicism as her faith. She was confined to her room for some weeks, in hopes she would recant the conversion. Henry, upon hearing the news, took her children from her, cut off all financial support, and disowned her. They were partly reconciled before Henry's death in 1636. Elizabeth died in 1639. By 1643, Puritans and Royalists were tearing England apart in civil war.

Many thanks go to Laura June Dziuban, who painstakingly transcribed "The Tragedie of Mariam" from a facsimile reprint. She did a great job on it! and it is much appreciated.

Journal Kept During The Russian War

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:17:21 GMT

I am happy to announce Celebration Edition # 305:

"Journal Kept During The Russian War: From The Departure Of The Army From England In April 1854, To The Fall Of Sebastopol."
By Frances Isabella Locke Duberly [aka Mrs. Henry Duberly] (1829-1903).
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856 (Second Edition).
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/duberly/journal/journal.html

Fanny Duberly, at age 25, accompanied her husband to the Crimea, and remained there until the end of the fighting. She was the only officer's wife to remain throughout the entire campaign. She survived the severe winter of 1854-55, witnessed the battle of Balaklava, and rode through the ruins of Sebastopol. Through it all, she was determined to keep a brave face: "I would scorn & dread to let them [the soldiers] know such thoughts were ever in my mind. Half of them know me as the never omitted guest, where a dinner is wanted to be amusing & brilliant & half as the rider of their troublesome horses. I wish I was a man."

So wrote Fanny in a private letter to her sister Selina. I suspect Fanny would have been quite successful as a man -- indeed, as an officer. Intelligent, forceful, with a grasp of military tactics, a passionate love of horses, and an impressive resistance to cold, scant food, and unsanitary conditions, I can imagine her storming the barricades of Balaklava with the best of the them.

But Fanny, with all her intelligence and determination, was restricted to being the wife of a soldier. Her husband Henry was a poor youngest son, whose ability to rise in the military was restricted by his lack of money, and it must be admitted, by his placidity and lack of "dash". As army Paymaster for a "smart" cavalry regiment, Henry achieved an akward balance between financial security and social status.

Despite differences in personality, restless Fanny and quiet Henry were a devoted couple, rarely apart. Fanny's letters show a deep and consistent attachment to Henry, and it is clear that his presence was essential to her comfort. Fanny was determined to accompany her husband wherever he was posted, and went to considerable lengths to do so. She was aided and abetted by friends in both the army and navy. Without their help -- especially the navy -- she could never have made it to the Crimea.

At one point she writes, 'Lord Lucan, who commands the Cavalry, sent an order to Major De Salis, yesterday, to the effect that, "unless Mrs. Duberly had an order sanctioning her doing so, she was not to re-embark on board the 'Shooting Star,' about to proceed to Varna." Major De Salis returned for answer, that "Mrs. Duberly had not disembarked from the 'Shooting Star,' and he had not sufficient authority to order her to do so."'

After an order restricted the number of horses to be taken, making it impossible for Fanny to ride with the army, she deeply lamented her separation from Henry. "At ten o'clock to-day, with failing heart, I parted from my dear husband, and watched him go ashore; whilst I, alas! having no horse, cannot follow him, but must go on board the "Shooting Star," and get round by sea. How I hate it! How much rather I would endure any hardship than be separated from him at this time!"

Fanny eventually arrived at Balaklava, where she was reunited with her Henry. Conditions on shore were so bad that she regretfully begged a place to live on board ship. On the "Star of the South," within the partial protection of the harbour, she rode out a violent storm which destroyed ships and badly-needed supplies. Two weeks later, bodies were still afloat in the harbour. "I was scarcely over the ship's side, when the boat drifted – oh, horror! – against a dead body, one of the many that were floating in from the wrecks outside."

The situation in the Crimea were appalling, and bad decisions created extra hardships for the British army. The harsh conditions of daily life -- starving, wet, freezing, and surrounded by cholera-carrying filth -- killed thousands of men and horses. Fanny wrote scathingly:

'If any body should ever wish to erect a "Model Balaklava" in England, I will tell him the ingredients necessary. Take a village of ruined houses and hovels in the extremest state of all imaginable dirt; allow the rain to pour into and outside them, until the whole place is a swamp of filth ancle-deep; catch about, on an average, 1000 sick Turks with the plague, and cram them into the houses indiscriminately; kill about 100 a-day, and bury them so as to be scarcely covered with earth, leaving them to rot at leisure – taking care to keep up the supply. On to one part of the beach drive all the exhausted bât ponies, dying bullocks, and worn-out camels, and leave them to die of starvation. They will generally do so in about three days, when they will soon begin to rot, and smell accordingly. Collect together from the water of the harbour all the offal of the animals slaughtered for the use of the occupants of above 100 ships, to say nothing of the inhabitants of the town, – which, together with an occasional floating human body, whole or in parts, and the driftwood of the wrecks, pretty well covers the water – and stew them all up together in a narrow harbour, and you will have a tolerable imitation of the real essence of Balaklava.'

Not surprisingly, the British soldiers on shore were in poor condition to fight an opposing army. "The appearance of the officers very much resembles that of the horses; they all look equally thin, worn, ragged, and out of condition in every way." If Fanny sometimes seems to have more sympathy for the horses than for the men, perhaps it is because the horses had no share in creating the conditions which they must endure.

From the heights above, on October 25, 1854, Fanny saw both the triumph of Sir Colin Campbell's thin red line, and the heart-breaking destruction of the Light Brigade. "Now came the disaster of the day – our glorious and fatal charge. But so sick at heart am I that I can barely write of it even now. ... presently the Light Brigade, leaving their position, advanced by themselves, although in the face of the whole Russian force, and under a fire that seemed pouring from all sides, as though every bush was a musket, every stone in the hill side a gun. Faster and faster they rode. How we watched them! ... presently come a few horsemen, straggling, galloping back. "What can those skirmishers be doing? See, they form up together again. Good God! it is the Light Brigade!"

Fanny laments the decisions of the British leaders on several occasions. "Ah, how have our resources been wasted! – our horses killed! – our men invalided; while over it all broods the most culpable indifference!"

The Crimean war was a time of great hardships, great mistakes, and great sorrows. But Fanny Duberly was a woman of great spirit! She survived the entire war -- and a later posting to mutinous India -- before settling down with her beloved Henry in England.

The Mystery at Number Six

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:48:22 GMT

I am happy to announce the completion of Celebration Edition # 304:

"The Mystery at Number Six"
by Augusta Huiell Seaman (1879-1950)
Illustrated by W. P. Couse.
New York: The Century Co., 1922.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/seaman/six/six.html

Ah, summer. The end of summer comes all too soon, and with it, a return to the more mundane world of school, schedules, and planned activities. Or so it seems nowadays. Summer has the allure of adventure, possibilities, discoveries, of mysteries. It seems only right that "The Mystery at Number Six", by Augusta Huiell Seaman, is a summer story. A young girl and her parents have moved to Florida, to live near her older cousin. Together the cousins explore the Florida phosphate mines, both working and deserted, and meet a mysterious girl. Who is she? How can they find out?

A first impression of "The Mystery at Number Six" may suggest that it is annoyingly stereotypic. But the idea that first impressions are misleading is a key theme throughout the book. Almost all the characters manage, at some point, to confound the expectations and first impressions of the curious cousins, Bernice and Sydney. Several of the key characters totally overturn their ideas, which makes for a good mystery!

One thing that may put readers off is the use of the term "Cracker". Bernice and Sydney repeatedly refer to one of the characters as a "Cracker woman", generally in the third person. From their hesitance to use the term face-to-face, it appears to be somewhat impolite. Even today, there doesn't seem to be a strong consensus about the meaning of "cracker." It generally indicates poorer rural people in areas of Florida and Georgia, sometimes with negative connotations such as laziness, ignorance or violence; sometimes with positive connotations of independence, self-sufficiency, and an ability to do without modern conveniences. The term's significance seems to vary depending on where and when it was used, and it is authentic "local color", but I found it jarring.

Seaman's descriptions of Florida and the phosphate mines are vivid and memorable. Seaman effectively contrasts the working mines with abandoned ones which have been rapidly reclaimed by abundant Florida vegetation. She writes: "There is nothing more utterly fascinating than an abandoned South Florida phosphate-mine pool, nor is there anything farther removed in appearance from the same mine in full operation." The phospate mines of Florida are one of Seaman's most unusual settings, and it is worth giving "The Mystery at Number Six" a chance to correct any awkward first impression it may make.

Read and enjoy! Mary

Update: Illustrated "Gardening by Myself"

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:18:10 GMT

I am happy to announce that ALL sections of Mrs. Gatty's "Book of Sun-dials" are now assigned. Thanks to everyone who is helping to work on this!

I am also delighted to announce the addition of color illustrations to Anna Warner's book, "Gardening By Myself". We recently drove through New York State, and stopped to tour Constitution Island, where Anna and Susan Warner lived and wrote. I took lots of photographs, some of which I've added to the on-line edition of Anna Warner's book:

Gardening by Myself
By Anna Bartlett Warner (1827-1915)
New York, A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1872.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/warner-anna/gardening/gardening.html

Constitution Island is across from West Point, and was left to West Point by Anna Warner. Access to the island is limited, so if you are interested in visiting, you should check with the Constitution Island Association http://www.constitutionisland.org/ in advance to see if it's possible to visit. You should take picture ID with you, as you have to go through a security check to get to the boat dock.

Our kids enjoyed the boat ride over to the island as well as the tour around the house and grounds. On the island, we saw various fortifications dating back to the Revolutionary and Civil wars, as well as the Warner house and gardens. The house and gardens have been restored fairly accurately to the way they were in the 1870's, thanks to members of the Constitution Island Association, who maintain the gardens, and serve as docents for the tours.

The Warners ended up on Constitution Island rather unexpectedly. Henry Warner was a successful New York lawyer, with an interest in speculation. He bought Constitution Island thinking it might be a suitable location for a spa. A few small rooms left from the barracks of 1775 were the only building on the island, and Warner had them expanded to serve as a summer home. The new addition featured high ceilings and larger windows, but no fireplaces. In 1837, as part of a financial panic, Henry lost his fortune. With his young daughters Anna and Susan, and their Aunt Fanny, he moved to the island. The Warners lived there for the rest of their lives. In the winter, they retreated to the original rooms of the house, where fires could be burned, closing off the unheated addition until warm weather returned.

The rooms the Warners lived in are maintained much as they were when Anna Warner lived in the house, and the Warner's actual possessions and furniture remain there. Anna's garden tools can be seen in the kitchen. A small writing desk by a window may be the spot where Susan wrote novels. Little is left from their upper-class life in New York: a few pieces of silverware, some bits and pieces of china, a picture or two. (One important portrait remained because it was collateral for a loan, and so could not be sold off by the bailiffs!) The only thing the Warners managed to keep was their books. Clearly, they loved books! Almost every room in the house has high shelves, filled with titles, many in beautiful condition. They even had a "travelling bookcase," which could be closed up and taken along when visiting elsewhere.

The interior of the house is dark. Limited electric lighting has been added for tours. I was struck by the windows. In parts of the house, the walls are almost three feet deep, and the windows are very small. The summer windows tended to be larger for cross-ventilation. Notably, almost every window affords a lovely view of one of Anna Warner's gardens.

The restored gardens include a long walking path up to the house, a cutting garden, and an herb garden. There is also a sheltered corner with some rose bushes, and a tiny grape arbour. The Constitution Island Association has worked hard to restore the gardens so that the plants in them are true to Anna Warner's descriptions in "Gardening By Myself". When we visited, the cutting garden was filled with a colorful riot of zinnias and dahlias. One or two persistent roses lingered in the rose garden. The herb garden was redolent of lavender and sage. The show-piece of the grounds was the 300-foot-long pathway leading to the house. None of my photographs really do justice to it. Drifts of phlox, black-eyed susans, daisies, a few late lilies, globe thistle, celosia, salvia, cleome, artemisia, and many more plants, attracted clouds of bees and butterflies. The pathway is graceful, relaxing, and welcoming. It is quite a contrast to the jutting rocks and ragged trees surrounding it. It's impressive that Anna Warner managed to create this arc of beauty in such a wild spot. Even in the summer sun, I couldn't help imagining the island on a damply windswept winter day, and shivering a little.

Best wishes to you all, Mary

Gardening by Myself

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:04:33 GMT

I am happy to announce Celebration Edition # 303:

Gardening by Myself
By Anna Bartlett Warner (1827-1915)
New York, A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1872.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/warner-anna/gardening/gardening.html

"I wish everybody had a garden, and would work in it himself, – the world would grow sweeter-tempered at once."

Anna Warner was a wise woman, and I thoroughly enjoy her book, "Gardening by Myself". One hundred and thirty-five years ago, she wrote not for the owner of some great country house with pineries, greenhouses, and servants; nor yet for professional growers; but for the person with a gardener's heart -- the person who might, perhaps, have no more than a pot of earth, and the desire to see something green thriving in it. "The people for whom I write begin anywhere, – with the first flower or seed they happen to pick up; and then work on – anyhow! That is, not heedlessly, nor neglectfully, but as they can."

Anna and her sister Susan were not well off. She speaks forthrightly of the need to practice "economy" in planning her garden. "What I can afford, must come even before what I want. One novelty will buy from five to ten old favourites: yet the novelties are so enticing! Not the millionaire class – five dollars or so per seed – but those that are at least within sight of my purse."

Anna is rich, however, in her appreciation of what she has: of the gifts of growers who add some little extra to her orders; of the beneficence of friends who divide their plants or send something to her sickroom; of the lucky accident of finding some "refuse plant" tossed over a garden wall. She shows us how to be grateful for what we are given, and encourages us not to fret for what we have not, or what we have lost.

She mixes sound practical advice and timely reflection, and advocates (somewhat radically at the time) that young ladies get out and do physical things like digging. "Do you do your own digging? – and do you know how? It is such pretty work! – and by no means so tiresome as hoeing. A light spade is the first essential, – sharp and bright and clean from all soil of the last digging. Then ground in good condition: then, patience to do very little at a time, till you get used to the work. If you fail to use this last little tool, the chance is that you will lay yourself up with a lame back and an extreme disgust for digging. But it will be your fault, not the spade's."

The book follows the cycle of the year, from January to December, and I find myself nodding my head, as I read in August that "Asters need careful staking and tying up." My sea-star asters, pink, purple, and blue, were knocked over by rain before I heeded her advice. My son's yellow climbing rose bush is not doing well this year -- I can sympathize entirely with Anna Warner's sorrow at the loss of a prized vine. Looking towards fall, I gaze on catalogs just as she did, and dream of the bulbs I can plant.

I find myself reflecting on this advice: "Having then all essentials, begin joyously! – with the scent of the fresh grass and the fresh earth circling all round you, and blue birds charming your eyes, and song sparrows cheering you on."

This is just what gardening should be. May we all "Begin Joyously!"

I have dedicated this on-line edition of "Gardening By Myself" to my mother, Janet Catherine Mark, from whom I learned my love of gardening. I am happy that my son and daughter are learning to consider questions of what to plant and when.

AN ILLUSTRATED EDITION?

Anna Warner's book appeared in 1873, when colourful illustrations were not an option. Reading it, I couldn't help thinking that they would wonderfully enhance it. I wanted to ask what people thought of the idea of working together to create an illustrated edition of "Gardening by Myself."

I've had a couple of ideas. One possibility would be to add small pictures of plants she mentions in the book, so that people can see the plants she talks about. I have added a number of small images in the first chapter, to demonstrate what I mean.
The Heirloom Garden of Maine (www.theheirloomgarden.com) gave me permission to reproduce several picturese of hard-to-find plants from their on-line catalogue, which I very much appreciate.

Another possibility would be to illustrate the book with photos of Anna Warner's actual gardens. The Warner sisters lived on Constitution Island, on the eastern shore of the Hudson just south of Cold Spring and directly across from West Point. Since the 1970's, the Constitution Island Association has restored the gardens based on old photographs and Anna's descriptions. It's possible to visit the island and the gardens (check for availability of tours and access to the island). Have any of you have been there, or would like to go? I think adding illustrations of the house and grounds where she lived would be really terrific.

What do people think? Do you have photos you would be willing to send me, with permission to add them to the book? I realize that ideas like this may either fall flat or get totally out of hand :-) I can't guarantee to use all (or part) of every image that I'm sent, or to give detailed credits for them. But please let me know what you think of the idea of trying to collaboratively develop an illustrated on-line edition.

In other volunteering news, only three sections (20 pages each) of Margaret Gatty's "Book of Sun-dials" are left to be assigned. If you are interested, please let me know that you would like to help prepare her collection of sun-dial mottoes. Thanks, again, go out to all those who've been working on the book.

Best wishes, Mary Mark Ockerbloom

Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:47:43 GMT

Now that we're back from our holidays, I am happy to announce an on-line edition of:

"Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?"
by Annie Denton Cridge (1825-1875)
First published: Boston: William Denton, 1870 [Dreams 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Subsequently printed with four additional "dreams" [Dreams 6, 7, 8, 9] in Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, New York, Sep 3-Nov 19, 1870.

In her book "Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America", Ann Braude states "the annals of Spiritualism contain the history of another women's rights movement in addition to the one that became the woman suffrage movement." (p. 81) Annie Denton Cridge is an excellent example of the women who were part of that "other" movement. She, her husband, her brother, her sister-in-law, and later her children, were involved in a constellation of radical and reform movements that included spiritualism as well as abolition, socialism, women's rights, and "free love". Ann Braude sees the connecting thread between these ideas as individualism: "all sought to liberate the individual from physical and spiritual domination by others and from the oppressive power of the state." (p. 129)

At first glance, the combination of spiritualism, socialism, and science may seem strange. But in the mid-1800's, scientific discoveries were changing the world in astounding ways. Scientific theories like Darwinism and evolution had challenged social, religious and moral certainty. Many of the early Spiritualists hoped that science would enable them to provably answer religious questions. The idea of communicating with someone on the other side of the country via a physical telegraph was only slightly less strange than the idea of communicating with the dead via some kind of "spiritual telegraph".

Annie herself was a psychometer, a medium, a feminist writer, an advocate of marital reform, and a socialist reformer. Her satirical utopia, "Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?" draws on a wide range of reform-related ideas, and has elements of both utopia and science fiction. It is utopian in the original sense of "a place that is not", rather than the modern meaning of an "ideal and perfect state".

THE BOOK: "Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?"

"Man's Rights" consists of a series of dream visions, describing a society on Mars where the sex roles have been reversed. Women in Martian society are beautiful and stately, dressed for activity, and benevolent (if somewhat oblivious and condescending) in their attitudes towards men. Men, on the other hand, are worn down by the difficulties and aggravations of daily life, by restrictive and ornamental clothing, and by limited opportunities for education and employment.

As on Earth, society is in a process of change, driven by both social activism and scientific progress. One of the first steps in the emancipation of Martian men is the development of a communal system of automated food preparation (Dream One). "There sprang up large cooking-establishments in different parts of the city, that could, as if by magic, supply hundreds of families with their regular meals." Annie Denton Cridge describes automated machinery for preparing potatoes and other vegetables, and for baking cakes and pies, in which "all was done by machinery: there was no lifting, no hauling, no confusion; but the machines, like things of life, lifted, prepared, and transferred as desired." But preparation of food was only the first step: hot meals were then sent to homes throughout the city on little "steam caravans" so that "dinner was dished and served almost simultaneously, in double-tin cases, containing all requisites for the table." Cities themselves were redesigned to support communal living, homes being located "in blocks, or hollow squares, with cook-houses, laundries, &c., at the center." It is fascinating to compare her vision with the present, in which automation has occurred but not communalism, and to think of current debates on city design.

"Emancipation from the kitchen" makes it possible to address mental hunger and thirst through education. But a healthy body is necessary for both physical and mental activities. Anne Denton Cridge presents dress reform as a significant step in the emancipation process, and advocates communal education for children of both sexes. Here again, scientific and social advances are both important. Schools must recognize that children learn, not by "pouring in" information, but by engaging children and "bringing out their own inherent powers." Begin with the children, and in twenty years you will have a generation of adults who can "mingle together in all business relations, to the advantage of each and all." Properly educated, they will vote intelligently.

Other "dreams" focus on vice and employment. In Dream Eight she imagines that women, now elected, have changed the laws to arrest "clients" of prostitutes rather than prostitutes themselves. Furthermore, the names of those arrested for this new crime are publicly proclaimed. Annie's description of an overnight crackdown under the new law is quite vivid! In Dream Nine, she envisions that women have given up unhealthy, stressful jobs in cities, and moved wholesale to the country, where they can earn their livelihoods as farmers in a more healthy and enjoyable environment -- an idea she herself attempted to live out.

THE AUTHOR: Annie Denton Cridge (1825-1875)

Annie Denton Cridge and her brother William Denton likely emigrated to American from England around 1942. In "British Chartists in America" (Manchester University Press, 1971) Ray Boston lists William Denton (1823-1883) as a weaver in England who lectured for the Chartist reform movement in London, and emigrated to the United States in 1942. Weavers and other textile workers were losing their livelihoods, and persecution of the Chartists caused many of them (more or less voluntarily) to emigrate to North America.

William became a professor of geology, who conducted scientific experiments into the "psychometry" of geological specimens. He writes: "Why could not rocks receive impressions of surrounding objects, with which they had been in immediate contact for years, and why could they not communicate the history of their relationship in a similar manner to sensitive persons?" In 1854, he enlisted Annie's help, as a "sensitive person". The professor wrapped his specimens in cloth, which Annie placed against her forehead, giving vivid descriptions of the mental images she received. William's wife, Elizabeth M. Foote Denton, also became a psychometric subject. The Dentons published detailed descriptions of the reports given during these psychometric "experiments" (cf. "Nature's Secrets: Or, Psychometric Researches", by William Denton & Elizabeth M. F. Denton, 1863).

Annie published a serial autobiography, "My Soul's Thraldom and Its Deliverance", in the "Social Revolutionist" in 1856. She discusses her Methodist upbringing in England, her rejection of evangelicism, and her search for an alternative in the spiritualist and utopian socialist communities. Her husband Alfred Cridge was strongly interested in both socialism and spiritualism, and he and Annie worked together as lecturers and writers. In 1857, Anne, Alfred and William began publication of the weekly "Vanguard" to promote spiritualism and reform issues. The "Spiritualist Register" for 1859 (Auburn, New York: U. Clark, Spiritual Clarion Office) lists the publication as "THE VANGUARD—A. Cridge and Anne Denton Cridge, Cleveland, Ohio. Reform. One dollar." Many records of Annie's life are published there.

One of the issues discussed in the "Vanguard" was marriage. Alfred Cridge argued that "inward attraction" should be the basis of a free-love marriage, not "outward forces of law and physical necessity". John Patterson, editor of the "Social Revolutionist", criticized the Cridges on the grounds that marriage itself oppressed women. Alfred Cridge replied that oppression, not marriage, was the problem; presenting himself and his wife Annie as an example of an enlightened marriage which had "developed beyond the sphere of despotism". Annie Denton Cridge disagreed with Patterson's condemnation of marriage on different grounds. Marriage, as she saw it, has both freed her, in giving her the opportunity to have a child, and restricted her, by resulting in the birth of a child. Faced with the problem of balancing self-sovereignty, and desire for a family, she recognized that the latter goal might require some compromise of the first. Women of all times can empathize with her position.

Public discussion of the morality of the Cridge's marriage came to an end when Annie's much-desired baby unexpectedly died in 1857. Somewhat of a religious sceptic until then, Annie reported that she saw the spirits of her dead parents waiting to bear the child's spirit away during his final moments, and that she was later able to hold his spirit in her arms. His death was the catalyst for her mediumship, and for a new religious certainty of the immortality of the soul, based on direct experience. She published several obituaries of her baby in the Vanguard, describing her religious experiences. Three years later, she bore a second son, Alfred Denton Cridge (1860-), and at some point apparently a daughter. In 1868, Anne Denton Cridge published a children's book: "The Crumb Basket" (Boston: William White and Co., 1868).

In 1870, Annie's brother, William Denton, published her satirical utopia "Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It?" In the same year, Annie apparently left her family in Washington, D.C. and moved to Riverside, California to grow oranges, with the intent "to demonstrate that the self-salvation of women lies in the cultivation of the soil." Her husband reported in the "Banner of Light" (15 May, 1875, 6) that she had died in California, and that his son (age 14) and daughter (age unknown) had reported spiritualist contacts with their dead mother. In 1884, Annie's son, Alfred Denton Cridge (1860-) published a utopian novel, heavily influenced by both feminism and psychometry, entitled "Utopia; Or, The History of an Extinct Planet, Psychometrically Explained" in which he identifies himself as the son of the late Annie Denton Cridge.

Various letters and documents relating to the Denton family are located in the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan.

The Book of Sun-dials (in progress)

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:32:50 GMT

I am delighted to report that all the page images for Margaret Gatty's "Book of Sun-dials" have now been scanned and are available on-line at the Celebration of Women Writers. If you are interested transcribing and proof-reading as a summer project, consider working on a section of this book!

A dozen sections still remain to be assigned. Each section is 20 pages long (with the exception of the last one, which is 26 pages.) These sections are from Gatty's collection of Sundial Mottoes.

Pages 241-260 217. DILIGE ... 323. FUERAT
Pages 261-280 323. FUERAT (cont.) ... 437. HORAM
Pages 281-300 438. HORAM ... 533. JAM
Pages 301-320 534. J'ATAN ... 676. LUMEN
Pages 321-340 676. LUMEN (cont.) ... 809. NON
Pages 341-360 809. NON (cont.) ... 932. ORIENS
Pages 361-380 932. ORIENS (cont.) ... 1051. QUID
Pages 381-400 1052. QUID ... 1176. SIC
Pages 401-420 1177. SIC ... 1306. TAK
Pages 421-440 1306. TAK (cont.) ... 1416. TIME
Pages 441-460 1417. TIME ... 1549. UTERE
Pages 461-486 1550. UTINAM ... 1682. ZEIG

Each motto gives the original wording (in whatever language it appeared), an English translation, and information about where the dial (or dials) with that motto were found. Here are a couple of examples, from the first 20 pages of mottoes, completed by transcriber extraordinaire Carolyn Benck (thank you again for all your work!) I particularly liked number 5, which can be read as literal or thought provoking. Number 93 has a very amusing anecdote attached.

5. A LUMINE MOTUS. Moved by the light.
Copied in 1870 from a dial at Sestri Ponente, near Genoa.

93. BEGONE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.

Is inscribed on a wooden dial of a house at High Lane, near Disley, in Cheshire. ... "When the dial was put up, the artist inquired whether he should (as was customary) paint a motto under it. The Benchers assented, and appointed him to call at the Library on a certain day and hour, at which time they would have agreed upon a motto. It appears, however, that they had totally forgotten this; and when the artist or his messenger called at the Library at the time appointed, he found no one but a cross-looking old gentleman poring over some musty book. 'Please, sir, I am come for the motto for the sun-dial. 'What do you want?' was the pettish answer: 'why do you disturb me?' 'Please, sir, the gentleman told me I was to call at this hour for a motto for the sun-dial.' 'Begone about your business!' was the testy reply. The man, either by design or mistake, chose to take this as an answer to his inquiry, and accordingly painted in large letters under the dial, BEGONE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS. The Benchers, when they saw it, decided that it was very appropriate, and that they would let it stand – chance having done their work for them as well as they could have done it for themselves. Anything which reminds us of the lapse of time should remind us also of the right employment of time in doing whatever business is required to be done."

If you run into characters such as Greek or Latin, and don't know how to transcribe them, just note them with a * and I'll fill them in for you.

Much of the rest of the book has been transcribed and completed already. I have finalized all the sections I've received. I am still waiting for the following assigned sections. If you sent me something for one of these sections, I didn't receive it, so please contact me again.

I. INTRODUCTION [Karen Babich] 1
II. ANTIQUE DIALS [Simone Fluter] 29
IV. EARLY ENGLISH DIALS – continued [Dona Wunschel] 62
VI. RENAISSANCE DIALS, DETACHED [Karen Babich] 88
X. SCOTTISH DIALS [Susan Wais] 140
ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUN-DIALS. BY J. WIGHAM RICHARDSON [Liz Pysar] 489
Pages 221-240 102. BREVIS ... 216. DIGITUS [Carolyn Benck]

You can see the work in progress at:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/gatty/sundials/sundials.html

My thanks to you all! Enjoy a wonderful summer.
Mary Mark Ockerbloom, Editor, Celebration of Women Writers

Gene Stratton-Porter: A Little Story of The Life and Work

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:39:02 GMT

I am happy to announce
Celebration Edition # 301:

'Gene Stratton-Porter: A Little Story of The Life and Work and Ideals of "The Bird Woman".' Contributor: Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924). Editor: S. F. E. (Eugene Francis Saxton, 1884-1943). New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1926. Copyright not renewed.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/stratton/gene/gene.html

I am delighted to have the opportunity to republish this short biographical sketch of the life and work of Gene Stratton-Porter.

Gene Stratton-Porter documented an unforgettable environment -- the Limberlost Swamp -- through her nature books and her novels. Publishers grumbled that she should "cut out the nature stuff" and make more money by churning out romantic potboilers. Stratton-Porter disregarded them. From the beginning, the purpose of her writing was to promote and describe nature. She convinced her publishers to agree to pair publication of each "straight" nature book with a fictional nature novel, jammed with natural detail, but appealing to a broader readership. In truth, her nature work gives her fiction much of its tremendous appeal and enduring power. A classic like "Girl of the Limberlost" simply could not exist without its detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna collected by Elnora Comstock, nor achieve its suspense without the real dangers of the Limberlost swamp.

It is easy to underestimate the amount of work Gene Stratton-Porter did in preparing her books. Most of her works were illustrated with her own photographs, gathered over months or even years, under physically demanding conditions. Describing an initial trip into the Limberlost, when gathering material about the Black Vulture for the novel "Freckles", she writes: "A rod inside the swamp on a road leading to an oil well we mired to the carriage hubs. I shielded my camera in my arms and before we reached the well I thought the conveyance would be torn to pieces and the horse stalled. At the well we started on foot, Mr. Porter in kneeboots, I in waist-high waders. The time was late June; we forced our way between steaming, fetid pools, through swarms of gnats, flies, mosquitoes, poisonous insects, keeping a sharp watch for rattlesnakes. We sank ankle deep at every step, and logs we thought solid broke under us. Our progress was a steady succession of prying and pulling each other to the surface. Our clothing was wringing wet, and the exposed parts of our bodies lumpy with bites and stings. My husband found the tree, cleared the opening to the great prostrate log, traversed its unspeakable odours for nearly forty feet to its farthest recess, and brought the baby and egg to the light in his leaf-lined hat." She made many such trips with her husband, who insisted that "no one less careful of me than he, might accompany me there." At that time, the Limberlost was virtually untouched, "a treacherous swamp and quagmire filled with every plant, animal, and human danger known in the worst of such locations in the Central States."

Even as Stratton-Porter documented the Limberlost's wildness and beauty, it was changing. By 1915 she wrote: "The process of dismantling it was told in 'Freckles, to start with, [1904] carried on in 'A Girl of the Limberlost,' [1909] and finished in 'Moths of the Limberlost.' [1912] Now it has so completely fallen prey to commercialism through the devastation of lumbermen, oilmen, and farmers, that I have been forced to move my working territory and build a new cabin about seventy miles north." Deeply concerned about all that was being lost, Stratton-Porter created a safe habitat for many endangered plants at her home, Wildflower Woods. Judith Reick Long reports: “Out of more than fourteen thousand trees, vines, shrubs, and wildflowers that she found or bought and planted, 90 percent were set by her own fingers.” Stratton-Porter campaigned ardently for the preservation and restoration of natural habitats, writing: "If these men do not take active conservation measures soon, I shall be forced to enter politics to plead for the conservation of the forests, wildflowers, the birds, and over and above everything else, the precious water on which our comfort, fertility, and life itself depend."

Ironically, Gene Stratton-Porter survived the Limberlost to die in a car-trolley accident, on December 6, 1924. An editorial in "Outdoor American" wrote: "Perhaps the most fitting tribute to Gene Stratton-Porter that we can make is to carry on in the cause for which she worked and in which she believed with every atom of her heart and soul. If we can dedicate to her memory something of the unspoiled forests of her dreams, we shall have erected the monument she would have chosen..."

For almost 100 years, her preservation appeals were largely disregarded. But, in part because of her books, new efforts are being made to reclaim some of the Limberlost. The Loblolly Marsh Wetland Preserve was dedicated in Jay County, Indiana on June 14, 1997, beginning with 400 acres of the Limberlost's original 13,000 acres. Scott Russell Sanders described the restoration in "Limberlost and Found", a 2001 article in Audubon Magazine: http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features0105/limberlost.html

"All around us now, the dry stems of last year's switchgrass, Indian grass, big bluestem, and little bluestem wave on uplands, while bright green shoots rise from the roots. Along with the grasses, a number of wildflowers were planted here--blue flag iris, purple coneflower, wild bergamot, indigo--and other plants have come back, such as bur reed and water plantain. ... seeds of some of these volunteer species may have lain dormant in the muck for the past 100 years, waiting for the corn to go away and the water to return."

"Here in this healing fragment of the original swamp, life trickles and sprouts and sings all around us. New grass brushes at our knees. Wind strokes our faces with pollen. On logs in the creek, turtles catch the sun. In the mud beside a pool, we study the tracks of raccoon, fox, possum, and deer. Overhead, crows hustle about on raucous errands, and turkey vultures tilt round and round in lazy loops."

A virtual trail map of the wetlands restoration project can be viewed at: http://www.bsu.edu/ourlandourlit/special_projects/loblolly/map.html It's just a beginning, and much that has been lost can never be restored. But I think Gene Stratton-Porter would be glad that, as in her books, men and women "are spending their time and strength in an effort to make the world a better place for themselves and for their children."

Anne Dudley Bradstreet: "Several Poems..."

Thu, 10 May 2007 12:18:11 GMT

I am happy to announce
Celebration Edition # 300:

"Several poems compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight..."
By Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612-1672).
Boston: Printed by John Foster, 1678.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bradstreet/1678/1678.html

Numbers are funny things: meaning is often arbitrarily attached to them. Celebration Edition #300 is not particularly more important than #299 or #301. But to have republished 300 books by women feels like a significant accomplishment, so I wanted Edition #300 to be something particularly important.

It seemed fitting to choose Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), both the first published woman writer in the American colonies, and the first published American poet, male or female. Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, had her poems published in England under the title "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts" (1650). The 1650 collection appeared without Anne's knowledge or preparation. She was not entirely pleased, and lamented that her "children" had been sent off "in raggs" though she would have wished "in better dress to trim thee". Her second published book of poetry, "Several poems compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight..." appeared after her death. It includes versions of the 1650 poems which she edited for republication, additional "public" poems which she planned to add, and some "private" poems, which her family chose to publish after her death.

Anne Dudley was born in Northampton, England in 1612, and raised in an elegant, cultured, literary household by her parents Thomas and Dorothy Dudley. She had an unusually close relationship with her father, who encouraged her to read history and classics at an early age. Devout Puritans, the Dudleys made prayer and theological discussions part of their daily life. Sensitive and intelligent Anne often found herself oppressed by a sense of her failings and fear of damnation. She was encouraged by the cheerful presence of Simon Bradstreet, who joined the family as her father's assistant. Later, as she matured, she agonized over her "carnal" attraction to the charming young man. At the age of sixteen, after she recovered from an attack of smallpox, Anne and Simon married in a union of both passion and intelligence.

Her marriage would bring Anne great joy throughout her life. Her tribute, "To my Dear and loving Husband" rings out clear and triumphant, celebrating their passion on earth, and hope of its continuance hereafter:

IF ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee,
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Another poem, lamenting Simon's absence, is both playful and plaintive:

As loving Hind that (Hartless) wants her Deer,
Scuds through the woods and Fern with harkning ear,
Perplext, in every bush & nook doth pry,
Her dearest Deer might answer ear or eye;
So doth my anxious soul, which now doth miss,
A dearer Dear (far dearer Heart) then this.
Still wait with doubts, & hopes, and failing eye,
His voice to hear, or person to discry. ...

In 1628, while Anne was happily exploring the legitimate joys of marriage, others were increasingly distressed by political and religious tensions. Charles I's Catholic sympathies aroused fears of a return to the violent religious conflicts of Catholic Mary and Protestant Elizabeth. Fearing persecution and desiring to create a "holy community", Puritans began considering a mass migration to the new world. Two years after Anne's marriage, in 1630, the Bradstreets and the Dudleys emigrated to New England as leaders of one of the first Puritan groups attempting to establish a plantation colony. More than 700 men, women, and children, with livestock and supplies, sailed in eleven ships. They knew they faced death and hardship. For all that her heart "rose" against it, Anne boarded the Arbella for New England.

Life in Puritan New England was hardly conducive to literary work, least of all by a woman. It is easy to undervalue Bradstreet's achievements if we do not recognize the difficulties and dangers that she faced in choosing to write. Her time was more than taken up with running a household and raising children in a harsh new land. Her husband was frequently absent, leaving her to handle many of his responsibilities. Yet, in the quiet of the night, with Simon away and her children asleep, Anne did not lie down to rest -- she picked up paper and pen and wrote.

I imagine her as evening fell, turning away from the unpleasant realities of Indian raids, a harsh climate, uncertain health, and colony politics, and finding through her poetry an escape and a return to the civilized standards of the world she had left. More, poetry afforded her an intellectual outlet that her intelligence and humour demanded. Her Quaternion of "The Four Elements", the four "Humours", the four "Ages of Man", and finally "The Four Monarchyes" (a poetical account of the Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires) is a monumental undertaking, covering the full range of classical knowledge. Such an achievement is remarkable. She gave her poems to her history-loving father, an appreciative reader who encouraged her, her husband, and other family members.

Focusing on the Old World, and staying within her family, were much safer than becoming too political, too personal, or too outspoken. Anne was quite aware of what could happen to a woman who acted in ways "not fitting for her sex". Examples which closely concerned her included a respected neighbour from England, Anne Hutchinson; a contemporary mother, Mary Barrett Dyer; and closest of all, her sister, Sarah Keayne.

Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643), a midwife who led religious meetings for women, was expelled and excommunicated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her "voluable tongue" and her religious beliefs. In 1637, while Anne Bradstreet was at home in Ipswich caring for her small children, her father, Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley, and her husband, Simon Bradstreet, served as magistrates at Hutchinson's civil trial in Boston. Dudley was aggressive in prosecuting her. Later, on March 22, 1638, Hutchinson was excommunicated. Not long after, she suffered through a horrific miscarriage, now suspected to have been a hydatidiform mole, a precancerous growth which produced exaggerated symptoms of pregnancy. This was seen as a judgment of God against her.

At Hutchinson's excommunication, a young woman named Mary Barrett Dyer rose and accompanied her out of the church in a silent show of solidarity. "A stranger observing, asked another what woman that was, the other answered, it was the woman who had the Monster..." Anne Hutchinson had delivered Mary Dyer of a misshapen, still-born baby, five months before, and quietly arranged its private burial. Overhearing the comment, Governor Winthrop had the baby exhumed, considering it evidence of divine punishment for the Dyers' support of Hutchinson. The Dyers too were excommunicated and banished. Mary Dyer repeatedly defied Massachusetts’ anti-Quaker laws over the next 20 years by returning to Boston, and was hanged for it on June 1, 1660.

Anne Bradstreet's younger sister, Sarah Dudley, married Benjamin Keayne in 1638, the same year that Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated. In 1645, Benjamin abandoned Sarah and went to England. Sarah followed him, surviving a shipwreck on the way, and apparently became inspired by religious fervor. After she returned to the colony without her husband in 1646, Keayne attacked her in letters to Thomas Dudley and others. Her husband accused Sarah of preaching, of not listening to instruction, of poor church attendance, and of having "impoysoned" his body with syphilis. Thomas Dudley obtained a divorce for his daughter, but in spite of his influence as governor of the colony, Sarah was excommunicated in 1647. Laurel Ulrich notes, "Sarah may have been visionary, or rebellious, or simply unlucky."

To the extent that any woman could be, Anne was in a privileged, even protected, position. Her father, Thomas Dudley, and later her husband, Simon Bradstreet, were governors and magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But as the case of her sister Sarah shows, their position was not enough to protect a woman of their family. Speaking out was a dangerous, potentially heretical act. One can speculate that the selection of some of Anne's poems, and their unprecedented publication in England, may have been in part an attempt to protect her and her family; to preemptively establish her as a "proper" Puritan voice, and not a heretical one.

Extensive male attestations at the beginning of "Tenth Muse" assert that Anne Bradstreet was a poet far beyond the normal abilities of women. (Joanna Russ characterized this attitude in "How to Suppress Women's Writing" as "She wrote it, but she's an anomaly".) They also describe her as the epitome of proper female virtue: "gracious", "pious", "courteous", diligent, "in her place", and "discreet", all implying that she is contained safely within the boundaries of her house and her family. The selection of private poems in the 1678 edition reinforces this vision: the poems, which are both strong and heartfelt, speak of her love for father, mother, husband, children and grandchildren; and the strength of her faith, even when facing adversity, loneliness, illness, and the deaths of those she loved. They are well worth reading. One wonders, though, what poems were not included.

For at times, in Bradstreet's work, a strong and assertive voice rings out, direct, clear, wryly humorous. Who can surpass the biting tone of her Prologue, when she says?

I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits.
A Poets pen all scorn I should thus wrong.
For such despite they cast on Female wits:
If what I do prove well, it won't advance,
They'l say it's stoln, or else it was by chance.

Her desire for a world in which women's abilities are recognized and valued is most clearly expressed in her tribute to Queen Elizabeth, "of happy memory", who she presents as the "Pattern of Kings":

Now say, have women worth? or have they none?
Or had they some, but with our Queen is't gone?
Nay Masculines, you have thus taxt us long,
But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong.
Let such as say our Sex is void of Reason,
Know tis a Slander now, but once was Treason.
But happy England, which had such a Queen,
O happy, happy, had those days still been, ...

In earlier lines, Bradstreet writes of Elizabeth:

She hath wip'd off th' aspersion of her Sex,
That women wisdome lack to play the Rex: ...

Anne, like Elizabeth, achieved a position of wisdom in a masculine-identified sphere. "The Tenth Muse" was listed among “the most vendable books” in London. Anne had a long and happy marriage and a supportive family, and remained well-regarded in the critical Puritan community. In accounts written for her children, she described her religious uncertainties, and her achievement of a spiritual balance which valued both this world and the next. Her poem "Contemplations" opens with a serene assertion of the excellence of God, as revealed through the wonders of New England's autumn.

Sometime now past in the Autumnal Tide,
When Phoebus wanted but one hour to bed,
The trees all richly clad, yet void of pride,
Were gilded o're by his rich golden head.
Their leaves & fruits seem'd painted, but was true
Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hew,
Rapt were my sences at this delectable view.

I wist not what to wish, yet sure thought I,
If so much excellence abide below,
How excellent is he that dwells on high?
Whose power and beauty by his works we know.
Sure he is goodness, wisdome, glory, light,
That hath this under world so richly dight:
More Heaven then Earth was here, no winter & no night. ...

When read with an understanding of their historical context, Bradstreet's poems are often rich with deep and complex meanings. Her writing is worthy of careful attention. Charlotte Gordon's autobiography, "Mistress Bradstreet", discusses specific poems, as do many articles in print and on-line journals. Read and enjoy.

In the Desert of Waiting

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:46:50 GMT

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/johnston/desert/desert.html
"In the Desert of Waiting: the Legend of Camel-Back Mountain."
by Annie Fellows Johnston (1863-1931)
Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1908.

In in 1902 and 1903, Annie Fellows Johnston spent nearly a year near Camelback Mountain, near Phoenix, Arizona, at Lee's Ranch. Annie's step-son John had tuberculosis, and it was hoped the climate there would help him. Lee's Ranch became the setting for Johnston's book, "The Little Colonel in Arizona". Johnston's short fable, "In the Desert of Waiting," appeared in one of the chapters of "The Little Colonel in Arizona" and was later published on its own in book form.

"In the Desert of Waiting" is a charming allegory. Yet, for all its sweetness, one can detect behind it the bitter tang of sadness, helplessness, and the many difficulties that attended John's illness. Tuberculosis was an unpredictable but inevitable death-sentence before the development of antibiotics for its treatment. John would die from it in 1910.

In 1908, after another difficult summer, Annie Fellows Johnston wrote in a letter: "John was very ill in June. We did not think he could possibly pull through, but the trained nurse was an unusually good one, and he got over his attack in a way the doctors thought was nothing short of a miracle.

"While he has been far from strong since, he has gone through the summer remarkably well, and done more actual business than any summer since we have been West. He has gone into partnership with a young naturalist out here, under the firm name of the 'Armadillo Curio Company,' ... To this he has added a menagerie side-line, buying wild animals from Mexico and different parts of Texas, and shipping them to various zoos and shows.

"I think the business is what keeps him up. It is so full of interest, always something queer and new turning up, that he hasn't time to think about his ailments, and forges ahead like a well man till the paroxysms of coughing stop him for awhile." (Quoted from http://www.littlecolonel.com/Letters/1908-09-23-toLilly.htm )

The message of Johnston's fable is that we all meet with disappointments and difficulties in our lives. We may bewail them, or face them with patient service and determination. In the end, like Shapur the salt-merchant in Johnston's tale, we will discover a very special human form of Alchemy; the ability to turn our life's experience, both the bitter and the sweet, into an elixir of great value, which will open our way to the City of our Desire. And having done so, we will be able to help and inspire others --

"Wherever thou seest a heart bowed down in some Desert of Waiting, thou shalt whisper to it: 'Patience! Here, if thou wilt, in these arid sands, thou mayst find thy Garden of Omar, and from these daily tasks that prick thee sorest distil some precious attar to sweeten all life!' So, like the bee that led thee to my teaching, shalt thou lead others to hope."

Johnston's is a message of resilience, of the ability to survive and overcome. It is hardly surprising that "In the Desert of Waiting" became one of Annie Fellows Johnston's most popular little books.

Thanks go to Nancy Williams for contributing this book to the Celebration.

Fir-Flower Tablets: Poems Translated from the Chinese

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:26:40 GMT

I am happy to announce:

"Fir-Flower Tablets: Poems Translated from the Chinese." Trans. by Florence Wheelock Ayscough (1878-1942), English versions by Amy Lowell (1874-1925). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921, Reprinted, February 1926.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/lowell/tablets/tablets.html

Many thanks go to Karen Babich, who did the initial transcription and proofreading of this book for the Celebration of Women Writers.

Amy Lowell was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on February 9, 1874, to a wealthy and prominent family. Unlike her brothers, who attended university (Abbott Lawrence Lowell became president of Harvard), she was tutored at home at "Sevenels" before being sent to private schools in Boston, "completing" her education there at the age of seventeen.

During Amy's childhood, one of her brothers, the astronomer Percival Lowell, traveled extensively in Japan and Korea. He regaled his little sister at home with descriptions of the East: "Every mail brought letters, and a constant stream of pictures, prints, and kakemonos flowed in upon me. . . [which] made Japan so vivid to my imagination that I cannot realize that I have never been there." The Lowells' interest in the Orient was part of a widespread fascination with Japan and China, which was largely closed to westerners before the 1850s. During her girlhood, Amy also met "a little girl from China", Florence Wheelock Ayscough, who was born in Shanghai. Her parents returned to America when Florence was eleven. Amy was then fifteen. Their friendship continued for over thirty years.

During that time, Amy Lowell became a well-known poet and public figure. She largely took over the Imagist movement from writer Ezra Pound. (Pound was not pleased.) Lowell edited and published several anthologies under the title "Some Imagist Poets" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915-17), and described the principles of Imagism. These included freedom in the choice of subject, use of free verse forms and cadence, and use of common language that would be "exact": precise, concise, and visually descriptive. Many of these ideas shaped later modernist poetry.

In "Fir-Flower Tablets", Amy Lowell combined Orientalism and Imagism. She also put herself in competition with Ezra Pound again. Pound published "Cathay" in 1915, basing his 'translations' of Li Po (Rihaku) on the notes of deceased scholar Ernest Fenellosa. When Florence Ayscough approached Amy Lowell about collaborating on poetic translations in 1917, Amy was determined to outdo Pound.

Amy and Florence worked on "Fir-Flower Tablets" over a period of four years. They describe the methods used in their collaboration in considerable detail. Amy received extensive notes on each poem, including a word-by-word analysis and an overall paraphrase in English, with background notes on cultural allusions. "Having done what I could with these materials, I sent the result to her, when she and her Chinese teacher carefully compared it with the original, and it was returned to me, either passed or commented upon, as the case might be. Some poems crossed continent and ocean many times..."

The tension between writing a "correct" translation and writing an effective poem is visible throughout the book, and in its reviews. Lowell was overly dependent on written and visual forms, isolated from the first-hand sounds of spoken language. As translators, Lowell and Ayscough were influenced by a theory that the component parts of the written Chinese characters were intended to "enhance" the meaning of the word/poem through "descriptive allusions" -- a theory that is now dismissed.

As poetic "re-creations", rather than strict translations, the poems' success varies. At their best, Lowell manages to create striking and forceful images which evoke a strong and immediate response from the reader. Sometimes the emphasis on ideographs actually works to Lowell's advantage, leading her to seek precise, striking phrases, instead of more common terms. At other times the attempt to include all the possible meanings of an ideograph leads to lengthy, wandering descriptions which do not read effectively. I felt that Ayscough and Lowell's reworkings of Li T'ai-Po were particularly prone to this. Yet, in the beginning of "The Northern Flight" by Li T'ai-Po, Lowell's use of crisp, immediate language conveys a sense of near-vertigo:

What hardships are encountered in a Northern flight!
We fly Northward, ascending the T'ai Hang Mountains.
The mountain road winds round a cliff, and it is very steep and dangerous;
The precipice, sheer as though cut with a knife, rises to the great, wide blue of the sky.
The horses' feet slip on the slanting ledges;
The carriage-wheels are broken on the high ridges;
...

And who can resist their translation of "Drinking Alone In The Moonlight" by Li T'ai-Po?

A pot of wine among flowers.
I alone, drinking, without a companion.
I lift the cup and invite the bright moon.
My shadow opposite certainly makes us three.
But the moon cannot drink,
And my shadow follows the motions of my body in vain.
For the briefest time are the moon and my shadow my companions.
Oh, be joyful! One must make the most of Spring.
I sing -- the moon walks forward rhythmically;
I dance, and my shadow shatters and becomes confused.
In my waking moments, we are happily blended.
When I am drunk, we are divided from one another and scattered.
For a long time I shall be obliged to wander without intention;
But we will keep our appointment by the far-off Cloudy River.

Other favorites of mine include:

Seeking For The Hermit Of The West Hill; Not Meeting Him
By Ch'iu Wei

On the Nothing-Beyond Peak, a hut of red grass.
I mount straight up for thirty li.
I knock at the closed door -- no serving boy.
I look into the room. There is only the low table, and the stand for the elbows.
If you are not sitting on the cloth seat of your rough wood cart,
Then you must be fishing in the Autumn water.
We have missed each other; we have not seen each other;
My effort to do you homage has been in vain.
The grass is the colour which rain leaves.
From inside the window, I hear the sound of pine-trees at dusk.
There is no greater solitude than to be here.
My ears hear it; my heart spreads open to it naturally.
Although I lack the entertainment of a host,
I have received much -- the whole doctrine of clear purity.
My joy exhausted, I descend the hill.
Why should I wait for the Man of Wisdom?

As to the question of who wrote better 'translations', Ezra Pound or Amy Lowell, I've no desire to be a critic :-) But, purely for the fun of it, here are two versions of Li Po's 'Parting', first by Pound, then by Lowell and Ayscough, and my impressions of them. Comparing translations is a rewarding way to get a feeling for a poem originally written in another language. What different writers include or omit and their varying choices of words, enhance awareness of the possibilities of the original.

"Parting"

Blue mountains to the north of the wall,
White river winding about them;
Here we must make separation
And go out through a thousand miles of dead grass.

Mind like a floating wide cloud,
Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances
Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance
Our horses neigh to each other
as we are departing.

-- Ezra Pound

"Parting"

Clear green hills at a right angle to the North Wall,
White water winding to the East of the city.
Here is the place where we must part.
The lonely water-plants go ten thousand li;
The floating clouds wander everywhither as does man.
Day is departing--it and my friend.
Our hands separate. Now he is going.
"Hsiao, hsiao," the horse neighs.
He neighs again, "Hsiao, hsiao."

-- Amy Lowell and Florence Ayscough

I find Lowell's initial lines crisper and visually stronger. With her, I feel like I'm standing in a real, specific spot, looking out at a particular city wall. Pound's description seems generic, like a blurry painting. I also think Lowell's parting from "my friend" is stronger and more emotionally engaging than Pound's "old acquaintance". Her use of the horses' neighing makes the scene feel immediate. On Pound's side, going out through "a thousand miles of dead grass" is a brilliant image conveying a sense of desolation, which Lowell's "lonely water plants" totally misses. I think both poets have strengths, but overall I prefer Amy Lowell's take on this particular poem.

I hope you will enjoy reading more of "Fir-Flower Tablets".

Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 03:11:32 GMT

I'm absolutely delighted to announce the on-line publication of:

"Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago."
by Anna Forbes [aka Annabella Keith, Mrs. Henry Forbes] (-1922)
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1887.
[vt. "Unbeaten Tracks in Islands of the Far East", as released by Oxford University Press, 1987]
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/forbes/insulinde/insulinde.html

I just love this book. When I read it, Anna Forbes seems like a good friend. When she describes her day-to-day life and adventures in exotic lands, she tells me exactly the things that I would be most interested in knowing, in an interesting and engaging way.

Anna left England and travelled to Batavia to marry Henry Ogg Forbes, a naturalist. He had been travelling and working in the Eastern Archipelago for some time. Anna does not allude directly to her engagement or marriage in her book, but there is a definite honeymoon atmosphere to the first few chapters. Her sense of excitement and anticipation as she approaches Batavia is clear, as is her pleasure at meeting "H." A few days later, she writes:

"Do I like life in the tropics? Yes, indeed, I am enchanted with all I see, I enjoy many indescribable sensations of delight."

Their first few weeks together were a time of rest and enjoyment, walking daily in beautiful gardens at Buitenzorg:

"H. has been in Buitenzorg several times; he knows the gardens well, and shows me many beautiful details I might have passed unnoticed.... We never miss a daily visit to a seat under an umbrageous India-rubber tree, in front of which a fountain plays into a circular pond, dotted with blue and white flowers of water-lilies and Victoria regias."

Over the better part of two years, Anna and Henry travelled throughout the area. The romance of the archipelago's islands appealed to her strongly.

"Gessir is a mere horse-shoe-shaped, cocoanut-fringed coral attol, once one of the most dreaded nests and secure hiding-places of pirates in these seas, but now one of the busiest and most curious marts in the extreme East, crowded with the representatives and the handiwork of every race in the archipelago. It is the rendezvous of the paradise and other bird-skin collectors from the mainland of New Guinea, from Salwatty, Mysore, and Halmaheira, and of the pearl-divers of Aru; hither the tripang, tortoise-shell, bee's-wax, nutmegs, dammar, and other rich produce from a multitude of islands are brought to be exchanged with the Malay and Chinese traders of Macassar, Singapore, and Ternate..."

Anna entered whole-heartedly into her husband's interests, making his vocation her own, and soon helping him to a significant degree.

"I am beginning to enter into the joys of a naturalist, and have grown quite learned in long names of birds and insects, and can help H. in labelling and arranging. The later hours of every afternoon are looked forward to by both of us as the most pleasant of the day, when the hunters' spoils are displayed for our admiration. The gay parrots and beautiful kingfishers, the curious maleos, whose terra-cotta eggs are a table luxury, and those wonderfully plumaged pigeons, give us special delight. Strolling along the bay, on whose beach the east wind has been throwing a wealth of sponges, hydroids, and shells, we spend many hours examining them and watching the fields of shore-crabs, with their richly coloured pincer limbs, and the curious fishes which come up out of the water and hop along the shore in their odd way. "

Her comments show concern for the conservation of species, as well as interest in their description and collection.

"We saw also a cargo of birds just arrived from New Guinea, and ready for despatch to Europe -- 2000 skins of the orange-feathered bird of paradise, 800 of the king-bird, and a various lot of others. This, remember, was only one cargo, and the traffic will go on the whole season. Such a fearful slaughter of these lovely birds is really distressing. Soon we shall have lost off the face of the globe these unique and most gorgeous of the feathered tribes. "

Anna is far more flexible and adaptable than many of her contemporaries. She is consistently curious about the people she meets, generally tolerant, and even appreciative. Speaking of "graceful Tenimber women" she writes:

"With head erect and chest expanded, how easy, graceful, healthy, happy they looked! Untrammelled in limb, free of foot, it was worth while to watch their every motion."

In spite of their idyllic beginning, Anna's travels in Insulinde were both difficult and dangerous. Malaria affected many travellers to the East, and Anna was no exception. She spent many days helpless in bed with fever. On one island, where she and her husband stayed for three months, she endured illness, lack of fresh water to drink, and scarcity of food once the locals tired of their trade goods. In addition, there was threat of attack by a neighbouring village:

"I never seemed to realise until we were really off what a risk of life we have run; indeed I did not know it, for H. carefully concealed from me the reason of his nightly watches for the last six seeks. He professed that he slept in a chair to be ready to give me assistance while so weak, but the Kaleobar people had sent a threat that they were coming to attack our village, and it was to wait for them he sat. A small boat was hired and kept tied to the end of our house, and Lopez was instructed to take me across the strait, out of the fray, should the attack have been made before the steamer came."

Their final establishment, in Timor, was an isolated hut, where Anna remained without any companion or servant for several weeks, while H. was away in the interior hunting specimens. She was almost continually feverish, surviving on rice water.

"What sustained me was the determination not to die. The thought of H.'s agony should he come in some day and find only what of me the rats had left, inspired me to struggle for life."

At last Anna managed to send a letter with a passing tribesman. He met men from the town of Dilly who had been sent to check on her. They were able to carry her for part of the trip back, but she still had to walk for five hours, at night, down precipitous rocks. Her husband rode for three days and nights to reach her, when he received the news that she was ill. They decided to return to England as soon as possible.

This was not the last of Anna's adventures, however, for she writes in the Preface, dated to 1886, that she has given her manuscript to another, to see it through the press, upon receiving "a sudden call to me to join my husband in New Guinea." Unfortunately, as far as I know, she published no other memoirs of their travels. We can be grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the book she completed, "Insulinde."