What do you think?
Rate this book
The Improbable Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and the First Woman to Run for President
From the acclaimed author of What the Ermine Saw and Behaving Badly, a portrait of Victoria Woodhull, a celebrated and maligned 19th century businesswoman and activist and a leader in the fight for women’s suffrage and labor reforms.
In 1894, a remarkably self-possessed American woman, with no formal education to speak of, stood before a British court seeking damages for libel from the trustees of the British Museum. It was yet another stop along the unpredictable route that was Victoria Woodhull’s life. Born dirt-poor in an obscure Ohio settlement, Woodhull was the daughter of an illiterate mother entranced by the fad of Mesmerism—a therapeutic pseudoscience—and a swindler father whose cons exploited his two daughters. It was through her mother, though, that Woodhull familiarized herself with the supernatural realm, earning a degree of fame as a clairvoyant and her first taste of financial success. Woodhull’s life would continue to turn on its axis and then turn again.
Despite a deeply troubled first marriage at the age of fourteen, countless attempts by the press to discredit her, and a wrongful jail sentence, Woodhull thrived through sheer determination and the strength of her bond with her sister Tennie. She co-founded a successful stock brokerage on Wall Street, launched a newspaper, and became the first woman to run for president. Hers was a rags to riches story that saw her cross paths with Karl Marx, Henry Ward Beecher, and Frederick Douglass. In an era when women’s rights were circumscribed, and the idea of leaving a marriage was taboo, she broke the rules to carve out a path of her own.
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Collinsworth tells the story of a woman truly ahead of her time—a radical visionary who made defying mores a habit and brought to the fore societal and political issues still being addressed. Neither a saint nor a villain, Woodhull emerges as an iconic, complex an entrepreneur; lover of freedom; and a fiercely loyal family member whose political activism and suffragist legacy will cement her in history.
In 1894, a remarkably self-possessed American woman, with no formal education to speak of, stood before a British court seeking damages for libel from the trustees of the British Museum. It was yet another stop along the unpredictable route that was Victoria Woodhull’s life. Born dirt-poor in an obscure Ohio settlement, Woodhull was the daughter of an illiterate mother entranced by the fad of Mesmerism—a therapeutic pseudoscience—and a swindler father whose cons exploited his two daughters. It was through her mother, though, that Woodhull familiarized herself with the supernatural realm, earning a degree of fame as a clairvoyant and her first taste of financial success. Woodhull’s life would continue to turn on its axis and then turn again.
Despite a deeply troubled first marriage at the age of fourteen, countless attempts by the press to discredit her, and a wrongful jail sentence, Woodhull thrived through sheer determination and the strength of her bond with her sister Tennie. She co-founded a successful stock brokerage on Wall Street, launched a newspaper, and became the first woman to run for president. Hers was a rags to riches story that saw her cross paths with Karl Marx, Henry Ward Beecher, and Frederick Douglass. In an era when women’s rights were circumscribed, and the idea of leaving a marriage was taboo, she broke the rules to carve out a path of her own.
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Collinsworth tells the story of a woman truly ahead of her time—a radical visionary who made defying mores a habit and brought to the fore societal and political issues still being addressed. Neither a saint nor a villain, Woodhull emerges as an iconic, complex an entrepreneur; lover of freedom; and a fiercely loyal family member whose political activism and suffragist legacy will cement her in history.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2025
69 people are currently reading
692 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 19, 2025
"Was Victoria self-serving or actually a feminist?"
Why not both?
This book was another reminder that I need to read about those racist pieces of shit Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony...
You've probably never heard of Victoria Woodhull. I sure hadn't before earlier this year. She was the first woman to run for president of the United States in 1872. It obviously wasn't a serious endeavor because Woodhull wasn't a serious person. But also because this was before women had the right to vote. Women couldn't own property, attend the theater without a man, or dine in a restaurant after 6 pm without a man. Women couldn't have a bank account without a man's permission. Women were barely considered people. The nineteenth century was a very patriarchal time(some would say it was when America Was Great)
Victoria Woodhull may not have been a serious person but she was a woman ahead of her time. She was a con artist and an entrepreneur. I support women's rights and women's wrongs. Woodhull was extremely ambitious and if she were alive today would probably be in Trump's cabinet. Victoria Woodhull was whatever was going to get her attention and money. She crossed paths with Frederick Douglass, scammed a Vanderbilt, and studied Karl Marx. She supported "Free Love" something that we equate more with the Woodstock era than the Gilded era. She was a clairvoyant and spiritualist.
I think had Woodhull been a man and done the things she did, lived the same way, there would be tons of books and movies about her. I really enjoyed this book even if I don't think I would have personally liked Woodhull.
A must-read!
Why not both?
This book was another reminder that I need to read about those racist pieces of shit Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony...
You've probably never heard of Victoria Woodhull. I sure hadn't before earlier this year. She was the first woman to run for president of the United States in 1872. It obviously wasn't a serious endeavor because Woodhull wasn't a serious person. But also because this was before women had the right to vote. Women couldn't own property, attend the theater without a man, or dine in a restaurant after 6 pm without a man. Women couldn't have a bank account without a man's permission. Women were barely considered people. The nineteenth century was a very patriarchal time(some would say it was when America Was Great)
Victoria Woodhull may not have been a serious person but she was a woman ahead of her time. She was a con artist and an entrepreneur. I support women's rights and women's wrongs. Woodhull was extremely ambitious and if she were alive today would probably be in Trump's cabinet. Victoria Woodhull was whatever was going to get her attention and money. She crossed paths with Frederick Douglass, scammed a Vanderbilt, and studied Karl Marx. She supported "Free Love" something that we equate more with the Woodstock era than the Gilded era. She was a clairvoyant and spiritualist.
I think had Woodhull been a man and done the things she did, lived the same way, there would be tons of books and movies about her. I really enjoyed this book even if I don't think I would have personally liked Woodhull.
A must-read!
September 5, 2025
Fictional quotes recycled as history. That's the best way to describe The Improbable Victoria Woodhull.
Then I spotted something extraordinary. On pages 17–18 where Collinsworth quotes Woodhull’s supposed testimony:
“My father was a con man, who never passed up an opportunity that didn’t require him to work himself. He was a swindler, who used black paint to cover the flaws of the horses he sold. He was a cheat who, after losing at the card table, paid his debts with counterfeit money. Not only did my father force me to perform as a child clairvoyant, he would starve me for days at a time to enhance my performances.”
Wow. That’s a stunner for Woodhull scholars. A common interpretation of her British years is that she hid her past and reinvented herself. Collinsworth makes that same argument—and yet here is Woodhull airing dirty laundry in court. That quote needs a precise citation, but none is provided. Without it, readers can’t verify the quote was part of the record. It sounds remarkably like Barbara Goldsmith's portrayal of Woodhull's childhood in Other Powers.
Even more troubling, several passages closely echo James Brough’s The Vixens: A Biography of Victoria and Tennessee Claflin—a 1980 historical novel often mistaken for nonfiction. Compare “iron band around my chest” (p. 169 here; p. 253 in The Vixens) or the sign “AMAZING CHILD CLAIRVOYANTS” (p. 34 here; p. 49 in The Vixens). That phrase doesn’t appear in any 19th-century advertisement I’ve found—Tennessee Claflin was billed as “The Wonderful Child.” Yet in this book’s “Primary Sources and Additional Reading,” The Vixens is listed as if it were legitimate scholarship—and misdated as 1918 instead of 1980.
Kirkus Reviews nailed The Vixens back in January 1980: “Appalling—not a biography but a kind of slangy screenplay, based on history but padded with reams of imaginary dialogue that ranges from vulgar to excruciating.” And yet, Collinsworth seemingly quotes directly from it.
For example, on page 34 of The Improbable Victoria Woodhull, Buck Claflin says:
“Good citizens, we meet here tonight in a time of stress to bring comfort to troubled minds and ease for broken hearts…. I’m proud to say that these two girls, my daughters, will employ their unique facilities to enable you to communicate with those cherished members of your family who are wrongly referred to as ‘departed.’”
Compare this with The Vixens (pp. 72–73):
“Good neighbors one and all, we meet here tonight in these times of stress to bring comfort to troubled minds and ease for sorrowing hearts…. Two gorgeous young ladies are thrilling and willing to serve you—daughters of mine, I’m proud to say. They will employ their unique faculties to enable you to speak with and possibly catch a glimpse of those cherished members of your families who you may have fallen into the sad habit of referring to as the departed.”
This biography had real potential. With careful sourcing and a clear separation between primary evidence and fiction, it might have been a four-star contribution. As it stands, the only truly valuable element is the reproduction of the 1869 Black Friday blackboard (p. 82). Otherwise, it blurs fact and fiction to the point of being unreliable. I can’t recommend it—except, perhaps, as historical fiction.
Despite a shaky book blurb, I had high hopes for The Improbable Victoria Woodhull. The publicity promised “exhaustive research,” and I expected substantial use of the British Museum Central Archives (BMCA) for the 1894 libel case Martin et Uxor v. Trustees of the British Museum. Since BMCA charges £6,885 (about $9,000) for digital copies of the case, I hoped this book would make that material more accessible. Instead, only a small portion of the narrative deals directly with the testimony. Most of it focuses on Mr. Garnett’s reflections on Woodhull’s past.
Then I spotted something extraordinary. On pages 17–18 where Collinsworth quotes Woodhull’s supposed testimony:
“My father was a con man, who never passed up an opportunity that didn’t require him to work himself. He was a swindler, who used black paint to cover the flaws of the horses he sold. He was a cheat who, after losing at the card table, paid his debts with counterfeit money. Not only did my father force me to perform as a child clairvoyant, he would starve me for days at a time to enhance my performances.”
Wow. That’s a stunner for Woodhull scholars. A common interpretation of her British years is that she hid her past and reinvented herself. Collinsworth makes that same argument—and yet here is Woodhull airing dirty laundry in court. That quote needs a precise citation, but none is provided. Without it, readers can’t verify the quote was part of the record. It sounds remarkably like Barbara Goldsmith's portrayal of Woodhull's childhood in Other Powers.
Even more troubling, several passages closely echo James Brough’s The Vixens: A Biography of Victoria and Tennessee Claflin—a 1980 historical novel often mistaken for nonfiction. Compare “iron band around my chest” (p. 169 here; p. 253 in The Vixens) or the sign “AMAZING CHILD CLAIRVOYANTS” (p. 34 here; p. 49 in The Vixens). That phrase doesn’t appear in any 19th-century advertisement I’ve found—Tennessee Claflin was billed as “The Wonderful Child.” Yet in this book’s “Primary Sources and Additional Reading,” The Vixens is listed as if it were legitimate scholarship—and misdated as 1918 instead of 1980.
Kirkus Reviews nailed The Vixens back in January 1980: “Appalling—not a biography but a kind of slangy screenplay, based on history but padded with reams of imaginary dialogue that ranges from vulgar to excruciating.” And yet, Collinsworth seemingly quotes directly from it.
For example, on page 34 of The Improbable Victoria Woodhull, Buck Claflin says:
“Good citizens, we meet here tonight in a time of stress to bring comfort to troubled minds and ease for broken hearts…. I’m proud to say that these two girls, my daughters, will employ their unique facilities to enable you to communicate with those cherished members of your family who are wrongly referred to as ‘departed.’”
Compare this with The Vixens (pp. 72–73):
“Good neighbors one and all, we meet here tonight in these times of stress to bring comfort to troubled minds and ease for sorrowing hearts…. Two gorgeous young ladies are thrilling and willing to serve you—daughters of mine, I’m proud to say. They will employ their unique faculties to enable you to speak with and possibly catch a glimpse of those cherished members of your families who you may have fallen into the sad habit of referring to as the departed.”
This biography had real potential. With careful sourcing and a clear separation between primary evidence and fiction, it might have been a four-star contribution. As it stands, the only truly valuable element is the reproduction of the 1869 Black Friday blackboard (p. 82). Otherwise, it blurs fact and fiction to the point of being unreliable. I can’t recommend it—except, perhaps, as historical fiction.
September 21, 2025
Eden wrote with guile and is paid with flattery.
I am not a Victoria Woodhull expert but I found the book to be riddled with historical inaccuracies. It is a poor excuse for history. What a deep shame because Victoria's story is so fascinating. Who is responsible for fact checking this book? If a biography ever lacks extensive footnotes, please be suspicious!
I am not a Victoria Woodhull expert but I found the book to be riddled with historical inaccuracies. It is a poor excuse for history. What a deep shame because Victoria's story is so fascinating. Who is responsible for fact checking this book? If a biography ever lacks extensive footnotes, please be suspicious!
December 20, 2025
I can’t believe I went through most of my life blissfully unaware that a woman as wildly audacious, scandal-ridden, and genuinely ahead of her time as Victoria Woodhull not only existed — but shattered ceilings and social conventions decades before most people even knew what “women’s rights” meant.
That astonishing discovery is exactly what Eden Collinsworth’s The Improbable Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and the First Woman to Run for President delivers — a biography that reads less like dry history and more like the uncorked memoir of the Gilded Age’s most combustible figure. Before diving into the twists and turns of this bracing narrative, it’s worth noting upfront that some other reviewers have suggested Collinsworth’s prose occasionally leans heavily on previous biographies of Woodhull’s life. I can’t speak with authority on that claim, but it’s an observation that seems meaningful given how many times Woodhull’s story has been teased, relegated, and sometimes overlooked by history.
If you pick up Collinsworth’s book expecting a tame recounting of 19th-century political progress, you will be disabused of that notion early. Woodhull’s life — at once spectacularly ambitious and infuriatingly messy — defies easy categorization. Born in 1838 into severe poverty in rural Ohio to a mother beguiled by mesmerism and a father described by Collinsworth as a persistent swindler, Woodhull’s earliest exposure to the world involved roadside “clairvoyant” performances with her sister Tennessee (“Tennie”), setting the tone for a life that would veer constantly between ridicule and reverence.
Rags, Riches, and Wall Street
Woodhull’s first startling pivot came with an arranged marriage at the age of fourteen to a much older, alcoholic husband — a union she would escape and later condemn as an early catalyst for her radical views on free love and women’s autonomy. Kirkus Reviews What followed was a sequence of transformations that would make most people dizzy: from spiritualist healer to Wall Street broker. With the backing of Cornelius Vanderbilt (whose son secretly fed Woodhull stock tips), Victoria and Tennie founded one of the first women-run brokerage firms in America. It was an achievement so audacious that mere mention of it raises eyebrows today; in its own time it was headline-grabbing.
In Collinsworth’s hands, these early business exploits are less about fiscal genius and more about Woodhull’s irrepressible appetite for impact — a woman who would not only operate in spaces dominated by men but would redefine them. The narrative here is brisk and, at times, cinematic: you can almost see the New York newspapers buzzing when “the Bewitching Brokers” appeared in the financial district.
Newspaper Mogul and Political Maverick
From finance, Woodhull pivoted to media, launching Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, a paper that became both a platform for progressive causes and a lightning rod for controversy. In its pages she championed women’s suffrage, labor reform, and yes — free love, which to her meant the right of women to marry and divorce on equal terms, without the stigma or legal entrapment that shackled many of her contemporaries.
But bookending her entrepreneurial achievements were collisions with the social and legal frameworks of her age. The sensational publication of scandalous material — including allegations against the popular preacher Henry Ward Beecher — led to her arrest under obscenity laws, a twist that landed her in jail as Ulysses S. Grant secured reelection in 1872. The absurdity is staggering: the first woman to run for President of the United States spent Election Day behind bars.
The Presidential Run You Didn’t Learn in School
Woodhull’s 1872 run for the presidency — 50 years before women could even vote in national elections — is the kind of story that should be taught in every classroom. Nominated by the Equal Rights Party, she campaigned on a platform that echoed progressive themes far ahead of her time: women’s voting rights, labor reforms, and broader civil liberties. Remarkably, she even listed famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her running mate — though historical sources differ on whether he endorsed that pick.
Collinsworth’s book makes this campaign a centerpiece not just of Woodhull’s life but of its contradictions: it was fearless yet dismissed; path-breaking yet treated as absurd by the press and political establishment. Even though she couldn’t legally assume office — she was younger than the constitutional minimum age — her candidacy remains a seismic moment in American political history.
Reinvention Abroad
After the scandals and legal battles, Woodhull retreated — or perhaps recalibrated — in England, where she lived out her later years with new wealth and social standing. Collinsworth illustrates her continued reinvention, exposing the uneasy mix of ego, strategy, and survival instinct that propelled her through a life of repeated reinvention. Washington Independent Review of Books
What comes through most vividly in The Improbable Victoria Woodhull is not a sanitized hero, but a human force — impulsive at times, infuriating at others, and relentlessly ahead of her peers in embracing ideas we now consider fundamental to modern discourse: gender equity, autonomy in relationships, and political participation.
Final Reflection
If the purpose of biography is to make us reconsider the past through new eyes, then Collinsworth’s portrait achieves that with zeal. Victoria Woodhull emerges not as a footnote but as a foundational figure whose life story is so tangled with scandal, ambition, and unorthodox brilliance that it feels almost fictional. My only quibble is with how seamlessly Collinsworth navigates familiar biographical contours — the earlier noted claim that some passages echo prior works does make one wonder how much of this narrative is rediscovery versus reiteration. But regardless of bibliographic sourcing debates, this book casts a long overdue spotlight on a woman whose very existence should astonish anyone who, like me, is hearing her name for the first time.
In a literary landscape cluttered with predictable historical narratives, The Improbable Victoria Woodhull is an electrifying reminder that truth can be stranger than fiction — especially when it belongs to someone who refused to be anything less than scandalously alive.
That astonishing discovery is exactly what Eden Collinsworth’s The Improbable Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and the First Woman to Run for President delivers — a biography that reads less like dry history and more like the uncorked memoir of the Gilded Age’s most combustible figure. Before diving into the twists and turns of this bracing narrative, it’s worth noting upfront that some other reviewers have suggested Collinsworth’s prose occasionally leans heavily on previous biographies of Woodhull’s life. I can’t speak with authority on that claim, but it’s an observation that seems meaningful given how many times Woodhull’s story has been teased, relegated, and sometimes overlooked by history.
If you pick up Collinsworth’s book expecting a tame recounting of 19th-century political progress, you will be disabused of that notion early. Woodhull’s life — at once spectacularly ambitious and infuriatingly messy — defies easy categorization. Born in 1838 into severe poverty in rural Ohio to a mother beguiled by mesmerism and a father described by Collinsworth as a persistent swindler, Woodhull’s earliest exposure to the world involved roadside “clairvoyant” performances with her sister Tennessee (“Tennie”), setting the tone for a life that would veer constantly between ridicule and reverence.
Rags, Riches, and Wall Street
Woodhull’s first startling pivot came with an arranged marriage at the age of fourteen to a much older, alcoholic husband — a union she would escape and later condemn as an early catalyst for her radical views on free love and women’s autonomy. Kirkus Reviews What followed was a sequence of transformations that would make most people dizzy: from spiritualist healer to Wall Street broker. With the backing of Cornelius Vanderbilt (whose son secretly fed Woodhull stock tips), Victoria and Tennie founded one of the first women-run brokerage firms in America. It was an achievement so audacious that mere mention of it raises eyebrows today; in its own time it was headline-grabbing.
In Collinsworth’s hands, these early business exploits are less about fiscal genius and more about Woodhull’s irrepressible appetite for impact — a woman who would not only operate in spaces dominated by men but would redefine them. The narrative here is brisk and, at times, cinematic: you can almost see the New York newspapers buzzing when “the Bewitching Brokers” appeared in the financial district.
Newspaper Mogul and Political Maverick
From finance, Woodhull pivoted to media, launching Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, a paper that became both a platform for progressive causes and a lightning rod for controversy. In its pages she championed women’s suffrage, labor reform, and yes — free love, which to her meant the right of women to marry and divorce on equal terms, without the stigma or legal entrapment that shackled many of her contemporaries.
But bookending her entrepreneurial achievements were collisions with the social and legal frameworks of her age. The sensational publication of scandalous material — including allegations against the popular preacher Henry Ward Beecher — led to her arrest under obscenity laws, a twist that landed her in jail as Ulysses S. Grant secured reelection in 1872. The absurdity is staggering: the first woman to run for President of the United States spent Election Day behind bars.
The Presidential Run You Didn’t Learn in School
Woodhull’s 1872 run for the presidency — 50 years before women could even vote in national elections — is the kind of story that should be taught in every classroom. Nominated by the Equal Rights Party, she campaigned on a platform that echoed progressive themes far ahead of her time: women’s voting rights, labor reforms, and broader civil liberties. Remarkably, she even listed famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her running mate — though historical sources differ on whether he endorsed that pick.
Collinsworth’s book makes this campaign a centerpiece not just of Woodhull’s life but of its contradictions: it was fearless yet dismissed; path-breaking yet treated as absurd by the press and political establishment. Even though she couldn’t legally assume office — she was younger than the constitutional minimum age — her candidacy remains a seismic moment in American political history.
Reinvention Abroad
After the scandals and legal battles, Woodhull retreated — or perhaps recalibrated — in England, where she lived out her later years with new wealth and social standing. Collinsworth illustrates her continued reinvention, exposing the uneasy mix of ego, strategy, and survival instinct that propelled her through a life of repeated reinvention. Washington Independent Review of Books
What comes through most vividly in The Improbable Victoria Woodhull is not a sanitized hero, but a human force — impulsive at times, infuriating at others, and relentlessly ahead of her peers in embracing ideas we now consider fundamental to modern discourse: gender equity, autonomy in relationships, and political participation.
Final Reflection
If the purpose of biography is to make us reconsider the past through new eyes, then Collinsworth’s portrait achieves that with zeal. Victoria Woodhull emerges not as a footnote but as a foundational figure whose life story is so tangled with scandal, ambition, and unorthodox brilliance that it feels almost fictional. My only quibble is with how seamlessly Collinsworth navigates familiar biographical contours — the earlier noted claim that some passages echo prior works does make one wonder how much of this narrative is rediscovery versus reiteration. But regardless of bibliographic sourcing debates, this book casts a long overdue spotlight on a woman whose very existence should astonish anyone who, like me, is hearing her name for the first time.
In a literary landscape cluttered with predictable historical narratives, The Improbable Victoria Woodhull is an electrifying reminder that truth can be stranger than fiction — especially when it belongs to someone who refused to be anything less than scandalously alive.
October 13, 2025
The author and I don’t agree on anything politically, philosophically, or politically, but this was a rip-roaring read about an interesting American woman with implications for the world we find ourselves in today. Recommend!
September 15, 2025
The research and historical info deserves a 5 - remarkable life story of an incredibly resilient women despite all odds however I found the narration to be a 3
December 23, 2025
It is hard to resist the story of Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927). She was dirt poor, taken by her father on the road as a ��clairvoyant” when she was a 12-year old. Through three marriages and numerous relationships, she went on to be a newspaper editor, a stock broker, and the first woman to run for president of the United States. Her serious endeavors were constantly in conflict with her publicly scandalous behavior and her duplicitousness.
The book has a lively subject for sure. My guess is that many details are lacking from the record. The author frequently broadened out to what was happening in the larger world. It is useful to have regular reminders of context, and I surmise that this may have been the only logical way to round out the story.
Victoria and her sister Tennie parlayed their youth as child clairvoyants into a run as spiritual advisors to Cornelius Vanderbilt; he subsequently set them up in their stockbroking firm. The money she earned allowed her to finance a run for the presidency. Not only did she not have the power to vote, she was below the minimum age to run for office. At the time of the election, she happened to be in jail, the result of printing salacious stories in a newspaper she owned and running afoul of the censors.
Certainly Ms. Woodhull would have encountered constant obstacles to her ambitions and intelligence. Her erratic behavior with men got in the way of being taken seriously in the way that suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were. The suffrage movement in the US disavowed any association with her.
Ms. Woodhull reinvented herself in England, seeking to put behind her the inevitable connections with “free love.” She was not fully capable of sweeping her past under the rug, and she sued the British Museum for carrying archival documents that covered past history. She lied a lot.
My regret about this book is that it did not offer much conclusion about her. The author calls her pragmatic, but that is not quite enough.
The book has a lively subject for sure. My guess is that many details are lacking from the record. The author frequently broadened out to what was happening in the larger world. It is useful to have regular reminders of context, and I surmise that this may have been the only logical way to round out the story.
Victoria and her sister Tennie parlayed their youth as child clairvoyants into a run as spiritual advisors to Cornelius Vanderbilt; he subsequently set them up in their stockbroking firm. The money she earned allowed her to finance a run for the presidency. Not only did she not have the power to vote, she was below the minimum age to run for office. At the time of the election, she happened to be in jail, the result of printing salacious stories in a newspaper she owned and running afoul of the censors.
Certainly Ms. Woodhull would have encountered constant obstacles to her ambitions and intelligence. Her erratic behavior with men got in the way of being taken seriously in the way that suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were. The suffrage movement in the US disavowed any association with her.
Ms. Woodhull reinvented herself in England, seeking to put behind her the inevitable connections with “free love.” She was not fully capable of sweeping her past under the rug, and she sued the British Museum for carrying archival documents that covered past history. She lied a lot.
My regret about this book is that it did not offer much conclusion about her. The author calls her pragmatic, but that is not quite enough.
December 23, 2025
Here's what I have to say about this:
It is a great story about a woman that I never heard of, and fills out some of the mid-19th century American history that I am fuzzy on. Victoria Woodhull was a contemporary of Mark Twain, even had some overlap with him when they both lived in England, and I had just finished that highly detailed and voluminous biography earlier this fall, so even though up on some things, there was a lot to learn here.
Woodhull pushed the limits in everything she did, from her hardscrabble upbringing in Ohio to her death in 1927 at age 88 as a wealthy widow on an inherited estate in England. Her father, Buck Claflin, was a classic con man, a swindler, and a cheat--he used his children, and everyone else he could, for personal gain, and they learned those skills well.
Victoria and her sister were raised to perform as child clairvoyants, and between their beauty and their charm they were able to scam Cornelius Vanderbilt, and with his backing, the two women parlayed their connection to him and opened the first women-owned stock brokerage in America. Victoria managed to accumulate great wealth and unlike her father, she managed to hang on to it. She also sought fame in addition to fortune and allied herself with high profile causes in pursuit of that. She became, in 1871, the first woman to speak before a House of Representatives committee to promote women’s suffrage and she improbably also ran for president as a candidate when she herself could not vote.
This is a pretty quick one and quite interesting, if not riveting, to read.
It is a great story about a woman that I never heard of, and fills out some of the mid-19th century American history that I am fuzzy on. Victoria Woodhull was a contemporary of Mark Twain, even had some overlap with him when they both lived in England, and I had just finished that highly detailed and voluminous biography earlier this fall, so even though up on some things, there was a lot to learn here.
Woodhull pushed the limits in everything she did, from her hardscrabble upbringing in Ohio to her death in 1927 at age 88 as a wealthy widow on an inherited estate in England. Her father, Buck Claflin, was a classic con man, a swindler, and a cheat--he used his children, and everyone else he could, for personal gain, and they learned those skills well.
Victoria and her sister were raised to perform as child clairvoyants, and between their beauty and their charm they were able to scam Cornelius Vanderbilt, and with his backing, the two women parlayed their connection to him and opened the first women-owned stock brokerage in America. Victoria managed to accumulate great wealth and unlike her father, she managed to hang on to it. She also sought fame in addition to fortune and allied herself with high profile causes in pursuit of that. She became, in 1871, the first woman to speak before a House of Representatives committee to promote women’s suffrage and she improbably also ran for president as a candidate when she herself could not vote.
This is a pretty quick one and quite interesting, if not riveting, to read.
October 6, 2025
How to describe Victoria Woodhull? Daring? Audacious? Driven? She was all of these and more, and Eden Collinsworth presents readers with a fascinating biography of a woman who dared to push the boundaries of Victorian society. I knew Victoria Woodhull had worked as a spiritualist, and had started an investment firm and run for president. I did not know that she had also started a newspaper. It stands to reason that she had been a suffragette, however, Collinsworth points out that Woodhull's participation in the movement may have been more about furthering her own agenda rather than about securing rights for all women. She was a master at reinventing herself; when she could no longer draw customers in with her psychic abilities (real or fraudulent), she became an investment broker, finagling support from financial moguls like Cornelius Vanderbilt. She and her sister founded a newspaper dedicated to topics such as the suffrage movement, free love, sex education, and legalized prostitution among other subjects. Following her unsuccessful run for president Woodhull faced various financial setbacks which resulted in her moving to England to reinvent herself yet again.
Collinsworth tells Victoria Woodhull's story in a clear and concise manner. There is a lot of material to present, and Collinsworth's text is not weighed down by speculation or tangents. We read about a woman that was far before her time, and even if she didn't do everything she set out to do, she gave it a shot.
Collinsworth tells Victoria Woodhull's story in a clear and concise manner. There is a lot of material to present, and Collinsworth's text is not weighed down by speculation or tangents. We read about a woman that was far before her time, and even if she didn't do everything she set out to do, she gave it a shot.
November 15, 2025
Victoria Woodhull was a wild woman and not what I expected. This was a well written biography. In summary, "despite the unpleasantness she habitually caused others, she can be acknowledged for her fortitude, and, begrudgingly, you must admit her recklessness added up to something resembling integrity." - pg 252. She had very few inhibitions which you kind of have to respect and if she had been more inhibited, would women have achieved the freedoms we finally have as quickly??? She lived the equivalent of manu lives and remained a "maverick to the core dealing equally in falsehoods and truths." - pg 253. In the end I dont aspire to be like her much at all and I find her self-interest gross, but who am I to judge when I haven't lived her life.
October 19, 2025
It's remarkable that so few people have ever heard of this woman, who really was ahead of her time. Although one could argue her deceptiveness is not a positive trait, it served her well in an era when women had so little in the way of personal and societal rights. In many ways, she would fit in quite well in today's political scene.
That said, she was bold, street smart, clever, and courageous. I would have liked to give this book four stars for all the research it took, but it became a bit too heavy at times. Overall, though, I'm glad I read it.
That said, she was bold, street smart, clever, and courageous. I would have liked to give this book four stars for all the research it took, but it became a bit too heavy at times. Overall, though, I'm glad I read it.
December 23, 2025
I am so surprised that I had never heard of Victoria Woodhull. She did so much, most of it outrageous, that it seems like she should be better known. There should be a TV series about her.
She came from a poor, abusive family and ended up marrying well and rich in England. She must have been something. She reinvented herself many times, leaving out the bad stuff. Most of it takes place in the mid nineteenth century. She hobnobbed with Karl Marx, Henry Ward Beecher, and Frederick Douglass and there are many gossipy parts about them and others.
She came from a poor, abusive family and ended up marrying well and rich in England. She must have been something. She reinvented herself many times, leaving out the bad stuff. Most of it takes place in the mid nineteenth century. She hobnobbed with Karl Marx, Henry Ward Beecher, and Frederick Douglass and there are many gossipy parts about them and others.
September 28, 2025
3.5 Stars for a very interesting look at an unknown woman who had the brains and charisma to get what she wanted and manipulate others for some terrific profit. Loved learning about another strong woman who did remarkable things to succeed when most women without family money were not allowed success.
October 7, 2025
I’d never heard of Victoria Woodhull until I read the NYT review of this book. She was certainly complicated. As told in the book, she exhibited all the strengths and weaknesses of humans. Her valiant campaigns for women’s rights, education, and so forth were matched only by her outsized ego and tendency to rewrite her own history. A fascinating biography.
October 17, 2025
A really good book. I had never before heard of Victoria Woodhull, and her life story really is amazing and hard to believe. Why is this woman not better known?
One nit: I could have done with a few less meanderings into the lives of other prominent contemporary figures who had little if any connection with the redoubtable Ms. Woodhull.
One nit: I could have done with a few less meanderings into the lives of other prominent contemporary figures who had little if any connection with the redoubtable Ms. Woodhull.
November 10, 2025
2.5
2 for the writing, which was light (Wikipedia as a source?), erratically focused, and randomly speculative.
3 for Victoria and the times she lived in. Wow. With spiritualism a thing and robber barons creating a country for themselves to rule, it was survival of the fittest.
I hope someone makes her their truly historical research project. I still wouldn’t want to try to be her friend, but I’d read another book on her.
2 for the writing, which was light (Wikipedia as a source?), erratically focused, and randomly speculative.
3 for Victoria and the times she lived in. Wow. With spiritualism a thing and robber barons creating a country for themselves to rule, it was survival of the fittest.
I hope someone makes her their truly historical research project. I still wouldn’t want to try to be her friend, but I’d read another book on her.
October 21, 2025
Curious, unique biography of someone who really paved her own path with the means available to her and what she made available to her. Recommended read of someone who did not fit the mold of late 1800s females to the point that she is published here more than a century later.
November 21, 2025
A difficult life requires some guidance, whether through people, spiritual or self gumption. Mrs. Woodall had them all and used every means to define, defend and control interpretation of her actions. She seemed to enjoy it.
tried-and-failed
September 15, 2025This seems to be about everyone except Victoria; gave up 1/3 of the way in.
October 4, 2025
fascinating story
October 11, 2025
Really interesting read. Learned a lot about the time and the woman. Amazing - and crazy - life.
October 31, 2025
Interesting life. Complicated. The structure was interesting but ultimately the use of the witness from the trial fell flat for me.
December 9, 2025
Very extensive retelling of Victoria's life and multiple attempts to become US President.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews