Download or read book First Lady of Letters written by Sheila L. Skemp and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-08-24 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820), poet, essayist, playwright, and one of the most thoroughgoing advocates of women's rights in early America, was as well known in her own day as Abigail Adams or Martha Washington. Her name, though, has virtually disappeared from the public consciousness. Thanks to the recent discovery of Murray's papers—including some 2,500 personal letters—historian Sheila L. Skemp has documented the compelling story of this talented and most unusual eighteenth-century woman. Born in Gloucester, Massachussetts, Murray moved to Boston in 1793 with her second husband, Universalist minister John Murray. There she became part of the city's literary scene. Two of her plays were performed at Federal Street Theater, making her the first American woman to have a play produced in Boston. There as well she wrote and published her magnum opus, The Gleaner, a three-volume "miscellany" that included poems, essays, and the novel-like story "Margaretta." After 1800, Murray's output diminished and her hopes for literary renown faded. Suffering from the backlash against women's rights that had begun to permeate American society, struggling with economic difficulties, and concerned about providing the best possible education for her daughter, she devoted little time to writing. But while her efforts diminished, they never ceased. Murray was determined to transcend the boundaries that limited women of her era and worked tirelessly to have women granted the same right to the "pursuit of happiness" immortalized in the Declaration of Independence. She questioned the meaning of gender itself, emphasizing the human qualities men and women shared, arguing that the apparent distinctions were the consequence of nurture, not nature. Although she was disappointed in the results of her efforts, Murray nevertheless left a rich intellectual and literary legacy, in which she challenged the new nation to fulfill its promise of equality to all citizens.

Download or read book The Source of Self Regard written by Toni Morrison and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that "speaks to today’s social and political moment as directly as this morning’s headlines” (NPR). These pages give us her searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. She looks deeply into the fault lines of culture and freedom: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” human rights, the artist in society, the Afro-American presence in American literature. And she turns her incisive critical eye to her own work (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, Paradise) and that of others. An essential collection from an essential writer, The Source of Self-Regard shines with the literary elegance, intellectual prowess, spiritual depth, and moral compass that have made Toni Morrison our most cherished and enduring voice.

Download or read book Dear First Lady written by Dwight Young and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects letters, some of which appear as full-size facsimiles, written over the centuries to America's first ladies by ordinary citizens and famous figures, and includes historical information to illuminate the writer's concerns and ideas.

Download or read book Letters of Light for First Ladies written by Cecelia Williams Bryant and published by . This book was released on 2008-03-20 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Esteemed first lady of Bishop John Bryant in the AME Church and an honored pastor in her our right, Rev. Dr. Cecelia Williams Bryant has complied a collection of letters that mentor other first ladies of the church, letters rich in comfort, encouragement, and challenge. Written in the tradition of Pauls pastoral epistles and crafted by Rev Cs own poetic voice, each chapter addresses a woman who is wrestling with a particular issue common to first ladiescovering topics such as church conflict, financial stress, self esteem, discouragement, and the death of a pastoral spouse. One letter even offers advice to the woman whose husband is the pastors spouse. A practical and inspirational resource that offers self-help with spiritual depth and honest practicality.

Download or read book A Lady of Letters written by Alan Bennett and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book It Seems to Me written by Leonard C. Schlup and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important women of the 20th Century, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was also one of its most prolific letter writers. Yet never before has a selection of her letters to public figures, world leaders, and individuals outside her family been made available to general readers and to historians unable to visit the archives at Hyde Park. It Seems to Me demonstrates Roosevelt's significance as a stateswoman and professional politician, particularly after her husband's death in 1945. These letters reveal a dimension of her personality often lost in collections of letters to family members and friends, that of a shrewd, self-confident woman unafraid to speak her mind. In her letters, Roosevelt lectured Truman, badgered Eisenhower, and critiqued Kennedy. She disagreed with the Catholic Church over aid to parochial schools, made recommendations for political appointments, expressed her opinion on the conviction of Alger Hiss. Some letters demonstrate her commitment to civil rights, many her understanding of Cold War politics, and still others her support of labor unions. As a whole, this collection provides unique insights into both Eleanor Roosevelt's public life, as well as American culture and politics during the decades following World War II.

Download or read book A Traveled First Lady written by Louisa Catherine Adams and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louisa Catherine Adams was daughter-in-law and wife of presidents, assisted diplomat J. Q. Adams at three European capitals, and served as a D.C. hostess for three decades. Yet she is barely remembered today. A Traveled First Lady (with Foreword by Laura Bush) corrects this oversight, by sharing Adams's remarkable story in her own words.

Download or read book The First Lady written by Carl Weber and published by Kensington Books . This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charlene Wilson, First Lady of First Jamaica Ministries, has lived a good life with her beloved Bishop T.K. Wilson and their two beautiful children. But now that the Lord has seen fit to call her home, someone needs to take care of her man. . . That's why Charlene has planned to hang around in spirit--to make sure T.K. ends up with the right woman. First in line is Marlene, the mother of T.K.'s illegitimate daughter. Then there's Monique Johnson, the unapologetic First Lady of Plastic Surgery and Implants. Next is Savannah Dickens, the church's attractive new choir soloist. And last but not least is Charlene's good friend Sister Lisa Mae Johnson, widow of Pastor Lee Jones. With the help of her friend Alison, Charlene prepares a series of letters addressed to the lucky ladies. No one else knows about the letters, but rest assured, they will shake up a whole lot of people. Charlene may soon be gone, but her presence will be felt. . . "Weber's novels are always sizzlers. . ." --The Cincinnati Enquirer "A front-row pew seat to all the action going down. . ." --Essence®

Download or read book A Lady of Letters written by Richard J. Allberry and published by Booktango. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Texas Woman of Letters Karle Wilson Baker written by Sarah Ragland Jackson and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-25 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karle Wilson Baker was the best-known Texas poet of the early twentieth century. Yet, while many of her male contemporaries remain well known to Texas literature, she is not. Her energy and significant role in shaping the literature of Texas equaled those of Walter Prescott Webb or J. Frank Dobie, with whom she ranked as the first Fellows of the Texas Institute of Letters. Her modern lifestyle as an independent, “new” woman and her active career as a writer, teacher, and lecturer placed her among the avant-garde of women in the nation, although she lived in the small town of Nacogdoches. She was a multi-talented writer with a wide range of interests, yet she championed Texas and the history and natural beauty of East Texas above all else. Sarah R. Jackson’s thoroughly researched biography of Karle Wilson Baker introduces her to a new generation. Baker’s life also opens a window onto the literary times in which she lived and particularly the path of a woman making her way in the largely male-dominated world of nationally acclaimed writers. Beyond the literary insights this book offers, Jackson spotlights developments in East Texas such as the discovery of oil and the founding of what would become Stephen F. Austin State University in Baker’s hometown. Extensive work in a number of regional and state archives and interviews with many who remembered Baker allow Jackson to offer an account that is not only thorough but also lively and entertaining.

Download or read book Women of Letters written by Marieke Hardy and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world of the short and swift, of texts and Twitter, there's something of special value about a carefully composed letter. In homage to this most civilised of activities, Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire created the literary afternoons of Women of Letters. Some of Australia's finest dames of stage, screen and page have delivered missives on a series of themes, collected here for the first time. Claudia Karvan sends 'A love letter' to love itself, Helen Garner contacts ghosts of her past in 'The letter I wish I'd written', Noni Hazlehurst dispatches a stinging rebuke 'To my first boss', and Megan Washington pays tribute to her city and community as she writes 'To the best present I ever received'. And some gentlemen correspondents - including Paul Kelly, Eddie Perfect and Bob Ellis - have been invited to put pen to paper in a letter 'To the woman who changed my life'. By turns hilarious, moving and outrageous, this is a diverse and captivating tribute to the art of letter writing. All royalties for this book will go to Edgar's Mission animal rescue shelter.

Download or read book Dear Mrs Roosevelt written by Robert Cohen and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-10-16 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Impoverished young Americans had no greater champion during the Depression than Eleanor Roosevelt. As First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt used her newspaper columns and radio broadcasts to crusade for expanded federal aid to poor children and teens. She was the most visible spokesperson for the National Youth Administration, the New Deal's central agency for aiding needy youths, and she was adamant in insisting that federal aid to young people be administered without discrimination so that it reached blacks as well as whites, girls as well as boys. This activism made Mrs. Roosevelt a beloved figure among poor teens and children, who between 1933 and 1941 wrote her thousands of letters describing their problems and requesting her help. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt presents nearly 200 of these extraordinary documents to open a window into the lives of the Depression's youngest victims. In their own words, the letter writers confide what it was like to be needy and young during the worst economic crisis in American history. Revealing both the strengths and the limitations of New Deal liberalism, this book depicts an administration concerned and caring enough to elicit such moving appeals for help yet unable to respond in the very personal ways the letter writers hoped.

Download or read book First Lady of the Confederacy written by Joan E. Cashin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy, his wife, Varina Howell Davis, reluctantly became the First Lady. For this highly intelligent, acutely observant woman, loyalty did not come easily: she spent long years struggling to reconcile her societal duties to her personal beliefs. Raised in Mississippi but educated in Philadelphia, and a long-time resident of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Davis never felt at ease in Richmond. During the war she nursed Union prisoners and secretly corresponded with friends in the North. Though she publicly supported the South, her term as First Lady was plagued by rumors of her disaffection. After the war, Varina Davis endured financial woes and the loss of several children, but following her husband's death in 1889, she moved to New York and began a career in journalism. Here she advocated reconciliation between the North and South and became friends with Julia Grant, the widow of Ulysses S. Grant. She shocked many by declaring in a newspaper that it was God's will that the North won the war. A century after Varina Davis's death in 1906, Joan E. Cashin has written a masterly work, the first definitive biography of this truly modern, but deeply conflicted, woman. Pro-slavery but also pro-Union, Varina Davis was inhibited by her role as Confederate First Lady and unable to reveal her true convictions. In this pathbreaking book, Cashin offers a splendid portrait of a fascinating woman who struggled with the constraints of her time and place.

Download or read book Precious and Adored written by Lizzie Ehrenhalt and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Captivating letters, published in their entirety, that document almost thirty years of love between two women of the Gilded Age.

Download or read book The Firebrand and the First Lady written by Patricia Bell-Scott and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEE • The riveting history of how Pauli Murray—a brilliant writer-turned-activist—and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt forged an enduring friendship that helped to alter the course of race and racism in America. “A definitive biography of Murray, a trailblazing legal scholar and a tremendous influence on Mrs. Roosevelt.” —Essence In 1938, the twenty-eight-year-old Pauli Murray wrote a letter to the President and First Lady, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, protesting racial segregation in the South. Eleanor wrote back. So began a friendship that would last for a quarter of a century, as Pauli became a lawyer, principal strategist in the fight to protect Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and a co-founder of the National Organization of Women, and Eleanor became a diplomat and first chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Download or read book Jacqueline Kennedy written by Barbara Ann Perry and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noting how Jackie's celebrity and devotion to privacy have for years precluded a more serious treatment, Perry's story illuminates Kennedy's immeasurable impact on the institution of the first lady. Perry illustrates the complexities of Jacqueline Bouvier's marriage to John F. Kennedy, and shows how she transformed herself from a reluctant political wife to an effective, confident presidential partner. Perry is especially illuminating in tracing the first lady's mastery of political symbolism and imagery, along with her use of television and state entertainment to disseminate her work to a global audience.

Download or read book A Lady of Letters written by Jacqueline Diamond and published by K. Loren Wilson. This book was released on 2011-02-21 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Regency lady has a dangerous secret. It isn’t Marianne Arnet’s fault that her parents are reputed to be spies for Napoleon and have fled Regency England. Now the handsome and powerful Lord Whitestone is threatening to bar her from the upcoming London Season and deny her a longed-for chance to mingle in the literary world. Lord Whitestone doesn’t realise that Marianne is his secret correspondent, and that he’s already half in love with her. Now she’s determined to come to London, even if that means using a disguise. After these two meet, there’s love in the air. And danger, not only for Marianne but for her parents as well. “[A Lady of Letters has] enough screwball-comedy touches to keep things prancing along cheerily.”--Kirkus Reviews I was thrilled to find another author, like Candice Hern, writing in the great tradition of the Heyer Regency.--Anne Glover, Regency Reader Cover by customgraphics.etsy.com