Description
Book SynopsisFrances E. Willard''s powerful leadership of the Woman''s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) made her one of the most commanding figures in the reform movements of the nineteenth century. World renowned and a force to be reckoned with, Willard grappled publicly and private with difficult issues, including temperance, slavery, women''s rights, and her own sexuality. These selections from her forty-nine-volume journal reveal the private and confidential side of Willard for the first time. She comes to life in these pages--a person of character, passion, and self-determination who came to represent the woman of the dawning era.
Supplemented by an in-depth introduction and generous annotations,Writing Out My Heartsheds new light on an extraordinary individual and the lives of women in nineteenth-century America.
Trade Review"Educator, orator, feminist, and longtime president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Willard (1839-98) was an international representative of a prominent strand of Protestant American activism. This landmark volume is the first publication of selections from her massive journals, which she kept mostly as a young woman. Entries show the development of her religious and reform commitments, her search for suitable outlets for her ambition, and her struggles to reconcile conflicting demands of family, society, and self. Also revealed is her passionate love for other women, which she understood in terms that will seem both familiar and unfamiliar to contemporary readers." -- Library Journal. "Willard's passion and power come alive in these pages." -- Publishers Weekly
