The Peabody Sisters: Three Women who Ignited American RomanticismHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005 - 602 pages Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody were in many ways our American Brontes. The story of these remarkable sisters -- and their central role in shaping the thinking of their day -- has never before been fully told. Twenty years in the making, Megan Marshall's monumental biograpy brings the era of creative ferment known as American Romanticism to new life. Elizabeth, the oldest sister, was a mind-on-fire thinker. A powerful influence on the great writers of the era -- Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau among them -- she also published some of their earliest works. It was Elizabeth who prodded these newly minted Transcendentalists away from Emerson's individualism and toward a greater connection to others. Mary was a determined and passionate reformer who finally found her soul mate in the great educator Horace Mann. The frail Sophia was a painter who won the admiration of the preeminent society artists of the day. She married Nathaniel Hawthorne -- but not before Hawthorne threw the delicate dynamics among the sisters into disarray. Marshall focuses on the moment when the Peabody sisters made their indelible mark on history. Her unprecedented research into these lives uncovered thousands of letters never read before as well as other previously unmined original sources. The Peabody Sisters casts new light on a legendary American era. Its publication is destined to become an event in American biography. This book is highly recommended for students and reading groups interested in American history, American literature, and women's studies. It is a wonderful look into 19th-century life. |
Contents
Matriarch | |
Seductions | |
Belinda | |
My Hopes All of Happiness | |
The Doctor and His Wife | |
Beginning to Live | |
Boston | |
Scatteration | |
Chastity | |
Blind Fair | |
Cuba Journals | |
Temple School Revisited | |
Little Waldo Jones Very and the Divinity School Address | |
The Sister Years | |
Conversation | |
Maine | |
There Is No Scandal in Brookline | |
Life Is Too Interesting to Me Now | |
Dr Walter | |
My Soul Steps Forth upon the Paper | |
First Retreat into Solitude | |
Mr Ripleys Utopia | |
Two Funerals and a Wedding | |
May 1 1843 | |
Acknowledgments | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism Megan Marshall Limited preview - 2006 |
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women who Ignited American Romanticism Megan Marshall Limited preview - 2005 |
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women who Ignited American Romanticism Megan Marshall No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
Alcott Allston American Antiochiana August Berg Betsey Boston Brook Farm Brookline brother Channing's Concord Cranch Cuba daughter Eliza Palmer Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Elizabeth Peabody Elizabeth wrote England entry EPP journal EPP to EPP EPP to MTP EPP to SAP father feel felt genius George girls Harvard Hawthorne's HM Papers Horace Mann intellectual January July June knew Lancaster later Letters of EPP Lidian live Lydia Mann's Margaret Fuller Maria Chase marriage married Mary's Massachusetts mind Miss Rawlins Pickman mother MTP to EPP MVWC Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Peabody never NH to SAP painting Peabody Family Papers Peabody sisters Peabody's portrait Rem of WEC Salem SAP journal April SAP to EPP September Smith Sophia Peabody Sophia wrote Straker typescripts teaching Transcendental Transcendental Club Transcendentalists Tyler Unitarian Waldo Emerson Washington Allston William Ellery Channing woman women writing young