The Beecher Sisters

Publishers Weekly

At a time when few women entered the public sphere, the Beecher sisters made an impressive splash. Harriet Beecher Stowe became world famous after publishing her antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, in 1852: 300,000 copies were sold in the United States that year, and she became the unofficial "spokesperson of the anti-slavery movement." The oldest sister, Catharine Beecher, founded the Hartford Female Seminary in the 1820s and published over two dozen books on women's education and religion. Isabella, the youngest sister, has been less celebrated, and White chooses to focus this joint biography on her in part because no full-length biography of her exists, in part because a great deal of primary material on her life is available. The decision to focus on Isabella is a good one. She becomes a leader in the women's movement, intimately associated with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but she is just controversial and flighty enough to ruffle feathers and show the frayed edges of central alliances within the movement. The same holds true for her relationship with her sisters-the three women represent very different perspectives on how women ought to participate in the public sphere, and it's usually Isabella's liberal leanings that create rifts within the family. White, professor emeritus of women's studies at the University of New Hampshire, brings to life the details and the ethos of an era; this volume provides not only a rich, varied, sensitive account of the sisters' lives, but a compelling overview of the many groundbreaking acts performed by intelligent, steadfast women during the 19th century. B&w photos. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The seven sons of famous American evangelist Lyman Beecher followed him into the ministry, but what of his four daughters? White (Univ. of New Hampshire; Growing Up Female) examines the lives of three of those daughters. Readers will recognize Harriet as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin but may be surprised to learn of Catherine's career as a pioneer of women's education and Isabella's as a women's rights' advocate. Painstaking research, much of it from primary sources, traces these lives from childhood in the intellectually stimulating and emotionally volatile Beecher household through careers, marriage, and motherhood to fame and legacies. Along the way, we learn that Catherine considered teaching "drudgery," that Harriet constantly struggled to balance writing and family, and that pragmatic suffragette Isabella was obsessed with Spiritualism. Throughout, White emphasizes their loving but complicated relationships with each other. Though scholarly in tone and most suitable for academic libraries, this is no dry recitation of facts. Instead, it is a vivid portrait of three complex women who succeeded in a world dominated by men. Although biographies have been published of Catherine and Harriet, none exists of Isabella; and while Samuel Schreiner's recent The Passionate Beechers provides similar coverage, it focuses on the family as a whole rather than on the sisters. White is to be commended for restoring Catherine and Isabella to their rightful places beside their more famous sister.-M.C. Duhig, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.