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Hearts of Fire: Great Women of American Lore and Legend
In Hearts of Fire , Kemp Battle celebrates a diverse and deeply satisfying array of folk heroines and other great American women who represent an astonishing range of experience and give new meaning to the term pioneer. Gathered from books, journals, diaries, newspapers, and letters spanning three centuries, these fascinating stories highlight the American woman's journey toward identity, independence, and self-creation. They serve to remind us, yet again, that America's faith in an individual's right to the pursuit of happiness has been tested repeatedly by our nation's women.
These pages are filled with women like Fanny Fern, the first female newspaper columnist in America; Ernestine Rose, who fled from an oppressive father in Poland to become one of the first leaders of the American suffragette movement; Sojourner Truth, whose wisdom and insight into the nature of slavery humbles us still; Dorothea Moulton Balano, a seafaring woman whose infectiously exuberant diaries would inspire anyone to go to sea; and Lynda Van Devanter, an army nurse in Vietnam, whose memories of war offer us a glimpse into the powerful idealism and indomitable will necessary to survive the worst traumas.
Hearts of Fire honors these great women, whose defiance of expectations and conformity was sometimes dangerous, often arduous, and always inspiring. Whether they are of major or minor importance to the narrative of American history, the many women who come alive in these pages represent a vivid part of our national character and the path of our nation's destiny.
Kemp Battle lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with his wife and four children. An investment banker, he is also the author of Great American Folklore.
These pages are filled with women like Fanny Fern, the first female newspaper columnist in America; Ernestine Rose, who fled from an oppressive father in Poland to become one of the first leaders of the American suffragette movement; Sojourner Truth, whose wisdom and insight into the nature of slavery humbles us still; Dorothea Moulton Balano, a seafaring woman whose infectiously exuberant diaries would inspire anyone to go to sea; and Lynda Van Devanter, an army nurse in Vietnam, whose memories of war offer us a glimpse into the powerful idealism and indomitable will necessary to survive the worst traumas.
Hearts of Fire honors these great women, whose defiance of expectations and conformity was sometimes dangerous, often arduous, and always inspiring. Whether they are of major or minor importance to the narrative of American history, the many women who come alive in these pages represent a vivid part of our national character and the path of our nation's destiny.
Kemp Battle lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with his wife and four children. An investment banker, he is also the author of Great American Folklore.
437 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 13, 2011
This is one of those books that's perfect for planes, trains and automobiles. There are amusing, entertaining, humorous letters, anecdotes and condensed autobiographies of many of the key figures -- Susan Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Isadora Duncan, Amelia Earhart, and some you don't know but definitely want to know, like Lynda Van Devanter, nurse and advocate during Vietnam, and Mary Read and Anne Bonney (infamous thieves and pirates). It reads like your favorite compendium of fairy tales did when you were a kid, that dog-eared book you couldn't live without, finding something new to read and laugh and learn with each time, or look with new eyes at the world around you having been in that enchanted one.
The voices of these women are alive and fresh and you can hear them cut right across the great divide of time lie it wasn't there. If you ever wanted to walk into, say, an old west time travelers saloon and converse simultaneously with Hollywood legend and ingenue turned mischief-maker sex symbol Tallulah Bankhead on courtship, listen to tale after tale of derring-do from civil war brides saving their husbands to Tiwa's Apache story that is Othello story with a happy ending wherein the accused wife comes back as a warrior, regains her husband's trust and then reveals her would be Iago for the traitor he is, the book rarely disappoints, and if one story doesn't suit you, another surely will.
The book is split into handy subject sections with titles like Family Life, Courtship, Marriage, Frontier Journeys, Breaking the Barriers, Bad Girls, Women and War and Women of Faith, Women of Fire. There is a reminiscence on Emily Dickinson by her cousin Clara Newman Turner in the Women of Faith, Women of Fire section I was not expecting and is a wonderful, intimate portrait of Ms. Dickinson. As well, there is a hilarious duel of two kinds of wit between "Josiah Allen's Wife" -- a "comical creation of Marietta Holley" and the notorious Victoria Woodhull, who was, to quote the book, and take a small excerpt, a
"Wall Street stockbroker (she helped build Commodore Vanderbilt's fortune) and then as a political figure (she ran for President on a free love platform)! Woodhull was charismatic, outspoken, and a thorny ally of women's rights advocates who feared her social, moral and political independence. In this marvelous (and fictitious) scene rendered by Holley, we confront head on the clash of the old world and the new in America's nineteenth century struggle for equity between the sexes."
Great for writers, too, looking for character inspiration. A very rich treasury, I recommend buying this book.
The voices of these women are alive and fresh and you can hear them cut right across the great divide of time lie it wasn't there. If you ever wanted to walk into, say, an old west time travelers saloon and converse simultaneously with Hollywood legend and ingenue turned mischief-maker sex symbol Tallulah Bankhead on courtship, listen to tale after tale of derring-do from civil war brides saving their husbands to Tiwa's Apache story that is Othello story with a happy ending wherein the accused wife comes back as a warrior, regains her husband's trust and then reveals her would be Iago for the traitor he is, the book rarely disappoints, and if one story doesn't suit you, another surely will.
The book is split into handy subject sections with titles like Family Life, Courtship, Marriage, Frontier Journeys, Breaking the Barriers, Bad Girls, Women and War and Women of Faith, Women of Fire. There is a reminiscence on Emily Dickinson by her cousin Clara Newman Turner in the Women of Faith, Women of Fire section I was not expecting and is a wonderful, intimate portrait of Ms. Dickinson. As well, there is a hilarious duel of two kinds of wit between "Josiah Allen's Wife" -- a "comical creation of Marietta Holley" and the notorious Victoria Woodhull, who was, to quote the book, and take a small excerpt, a
"Wall Street stockbroker (she helped build Commodore Vanderbilt's fortune) and then as a political figure (she ran for President on a free love platform)! Woodhull was charismatic, outspoken, and a thorny ally of women's rights advocates who feared her social, moral and political independence. In this marvelous (and fictitious) scene rendered by Holley, we confront head on the clash of the old world and the new in America's nineteenth century struggle for equity between the sexes."
Great for writers, too, looking for character inspiration. A very rich treasury, I recommend buying this book.
November 25, 2017
A book celebrating women over the history of the USA. It was interesting, but I'm not sure that all of it was 100% truthful as this book thinks.
Recommended 13+ for thinking that all feminism is good feminism and making Margaret Sanger seem like a good person.
Recommended 13+ for thinking that all feminism is good feminism and making Margaret Sanger seem like a good person.
March 3, 2023
This is a collection of vignettes about ordinary and extra-ordinary women. A few of the women you would recognize from reading history (e.g. Sacajawea) but many of the stories are from primary documents like letters or diaries. I learned about women who made significant contributions to our history and others who are memorable because they lived to tell their tales. As a woman I liked the history that this book offered to complement the history that we learn through school or general reading which is, after all, HIStory.
December 10, 2024
It is amazing to read about women who history has erased. This book shows how women have resisted, persisted, and thrived throughout the times.
July 29, 2018
This book offers a comprehensive list of stories; speeches; interviews; and excerpts from biographies, autobiographies, and diaries from great women in American history.
The book breaks itself into chapter categories of Birth; Family Life; Education; Courtship; Marriage; Frontier Journeys; Breaking the Barriers; Bad Girls; Women and War; and Women of Faith, Women of Fire. This book aims to cover a lot of early women's achievements and it has a particular focus on first and second wave feminism.
Perhaps this is more a reflection of myself but it introduced me to many new female figures in American history, whose importance is often dramatically understated. It also showed me how some of our more admired women were way more cool than we give them credit for.
Another thing I appreciate about this book is the way it gives equal weight to women of different races and classes. I especially appreciate how many of the chapters make a specific emphasis on beginning with stories from Native American women. The women included range from former slaves, to working women, to wealthy upper class women. The only common factor is that they were great in some way.
The stories mostly range in time period from colonial America to the second great awakening, so for anyone with an interest in American history and feminism I definitely recommend it.
The book breaks itself into chapter categories of Birth; Family Life; Education; Courtship; Marriage; Frontier Journeys; Breaking the Barriers; Bad Girls; Women and War; and Women of Faith, Women of Fire. This book aims to cover a lot of early women's achievements and it has a particular focus on first and second wave feminism.
Perhaps this is more a reflection of myself but it introduced me to many new female figures in American history, whose importance is often dramatically understated. It also showed me how some of our more admired women were way more cool than we give them credit for.
Another thing I appreciate about this book is the way it gives equal weight to women of different races and classes. I especially appreciate how many of the chapters make a specific emphasis on beginning with stories from Native American women. The women included range from former slaves, to working women, to wealthy upper class women. The only common factor is that they were great in some way.
The stories mostly range in time period from colonial America to the second great awakening, so for anyone with an interest in American history and feminism I definitely recommend it.
April 26, 2011
fascinating excerpts of American women from the 1600's to present day: their daily lives, their marriages , childbearing, love and romance, independence and being a WOMAN in this country. Wonderful!!! Must read you all!
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August 14, 200892W
July 7, 2010
Slow but interesting. Stories about women in our past where traditionally all the stories are about men.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews