02830cam a2200289 4500 425411734 TxAuBib 19960618120000.0 930212s1993||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 93016610 9780195066395 0195066391 (OCoLC)319001314 TxAuBib Hedrick, Joan D., 1944- Harriet Beecher Stowe : A Life / Joan Hedrick. New York : Oxford University Press, 1993. 507 p. In this landmark book, the first full-scale biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe in over fifty years, Joan D. Hedrick tells the absorbing story of this gifted, complex, and contradictory woman. Hedrick takes readers into the multilayered world of nineteenth century morals and mores, exploring the influence of then-popular ideas of "true womanhood" on Stowe's upbringing as a member of the outspoken Beecher clan, and her eventful life as a writer and shaper of public opinion who was also a mother of seven. It offers a lively record of the flourishing parlor societies that launched and sustained Stowe throughout the 44 years of her career, and the harsh physical realities that governed so many women's lives. The epidemics, high infant mortality, and often disastrous medical practices of the day are portrayed in moving detail, against the backdrop of western expansion, and the great social upheaval accompanying the abolitionist movement and the entry of women into public life. Here are Stowe's public triumphs, both before and after the Civil War, and the private tragedies that included the death of her adored eighteen month old son, the drowning of another son, and the alcohol and morphine addictions of two of her other children. The daughter, sister, and wife of prominent ministers, Stowe channeled her anguish and her ambition into a socially acceptable anger on behalf of others, transforming her private experience into powerful narratives that moved a nation. Magisterial in its breadth and rich in detail, this definitive portrait explores the full measure of Harriet Beecher Stowe's life, and her contribution to American literature. Perceptive and engaging, it illuminates the career of a major writer during the transition of literature from an amatuer pastime to a profession, and offers a fascinating look at the pains, pleasures, and accomplishments of women's lives in the last century. 19960618. Stowe, Harriet Beecher 1811-1896 Biography. Women and literature History 19th century United States. Authors, American fast Biography 19th century. Abolitionists United States Biography. Biography. fast TXGID