The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton

by Vivian Gornick

Elizabeth Cady Stanton—along with her comrade-in-arms, Susan B. Anthony—was one of the most important leaders of the movement to gain American women the vote. But, as Vivian Gornick argues in this passionate, vivid biographical essay, Stanton is also the greatest feminist thinker of the nineteenth century. Endowed with a philosophical cast of mind large enough to grasp the immensity that women's rights addressed, Stanton developed a devotion to equality uniquely American in character. Her writing and life make clear why feminism as a liberation movement has flourished here as nowhere else in the world.

Born in 1815 into a conservative family of privilege, Stanton was radicalized by her experience in the abolitionist movement. Attending the first international conference on slavery in London in 1840, she found herself amazed when the conference officials refused to seat her because of her sex. At that moment she realized that "In the eyes of the world I was not as I was in my own eyes, I was only a woman." At the same moment she saw what it meant for the American republic to have failed to deliver on its fundamental promise of equality for all. In her last public address, "The Solitude of Self," (delivered in 1892), she argued for women's political equality on the grounds that loneliness is the human condition, and that each citizen therefore needs the tools to fight alone for his or her interests.

Vivian Gornick first encountered "The Solitude of Self" thirty years ago. Of that moment Gornick writes, "I hardly knew who Stanton was, much less what this speech meant in her life, or in our history, but it I can still remember thinking with excitement and gratitude, as I read these words for the first time, eighty years after they were written, ‘We are beginning where she left off.' "

The Solitude of Self is a profound, distilled meditation on what makes American feminism American from one of the finest critics of our time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Biography, Philosophy, Womens, Gender

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Vivian Gornick is the author of, among other books, the acclaimed memoir Fierce Attachments and three essay collections: The End of the Novel of Love, Approaching Eye Level, and, most recently, The Men in My Life. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Britta Böhler · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[julieta · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invigorating read whichever angle you look at this book from. Gornick brings the story of Cady Stanton to life, and you can see a connexion with her view on womens rights, and how there is still a parallel with what is being discussed today. Yes we now vote, so universal suffrage is not the central problem for our generations. But women who discuss the problems of being a woman, the fight for equality are still seen as the "odd women", yes there is still a long, very long road to equality. And yes, every day, women, and men too, are discovering the many themes we need to discuss to get to that point. The truth is, social change, real change is very slow in happening. And this book is about the womens fight for equality in the US, imagine this in Latin America, where women are even today being killed every day, where abortion, with very few exceptions, is not yet legal, and where women who speak of these things are still seen and treated as "the odd women".

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the early 1800s, the feminist movement gradually began to take shape in America. Society was structured as a male-dominated, Christian believing, and overall socio-politically republic for the well being of all men without regard to women, African Americans or other minorities. Women were raised to be good wives and mothers. When faced with extenuating circumstances such as a failed marriage, they were legally unable to protect themselves. They were protected by their legal guardians; first, their fathers, then, their husbands. Few women raised objection to their sheltered lives. Many accepted without questioning the laws or consequences of such inequality. Finally, one such woman did. Elizabeth Cady (later Stanton) became a foremost leader in the feminist movement.

Vivian Gornick is a talented novelist whose focus on women's issues continues to spark any reader's intellect and imagination. In her latest work, SOLITUDE OF SELF, she depicts Elizabeth Cady Stanton who is by far one of the less heard about but most inspiring feminist leaders of women's rights in the 19th century. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a feminist determined to rectify the injustice of inequality between men and women by demanding suffrage, reform of marriage and divorce laws, recognizing the stronghold of religion, and challenging society's perception of women.

Gornick expresses that Stanton's arrival and involvement encouraged other women who were once silent on the many women's issues began speaking their minds. An entire intellectual world opened up and friendships were formed through correspondence amongst a network of women moving toward one cause - women's rights. Their history signifies the persistence and power which women have within them. Gornick's biography accentuates not only a life well spent to gain justified rights for her and others; but also to bring equality into a society that only spoke of the principle from its founding. She ignited a movement which turned the principle of "equality for all" into a reality.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) grew up in a socially conservative home in upstate New York. However, she had the radical blood to go against mainstream views even at an early age. In 1840, her intolerance of inequality kindled a slow blaze that would last for a fifty year struggle. She attended an antislavery conference in London where they refused to seat her because she was a woman. For the first time, she realized how the rest of the world perceived her - as only a woman. This incident began her crusade toward women's rights. In 1848, she met Susan B. Anthony, her friend, organizer, political ally, and champion in the cause. They never parted through the entire journey toward suffrage. Gornick includes their exchange of letters while campaigning across the states in churches, town hall meetings, convention centers, and Congress.

In the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, she formulated the Declaration of Sentiments which stated the grievances against women and demanded suffrage. As time progressed, Stanton's views shifted to marriage and divorce. She believed there needed to be a radical reform in marriage and divorce laws because the institution of marriage forces both genders to inevitably neglect laws imposed by custom or policy, break them to satisfy desire, or subjugate one gender to obey the other. In order to achieve political equality for women, laws needed to be created which encouraged the growth of inner lives.

As a modern feminist, Gornick embraced Stanton's wisdom and felt empowered by her words and philosophy. By the 21st century, the feminist movement underwent many transformations, defeats, and victories. Gornick and Stanton share a commonality which is the unwillingness to live with inequality. She continues to write and share unique perspectives of women's stories through intellectual and emotional integrity. Her latest books include The Situation and the Story: the Art of Personal Narrative and Fierce Attachments: A Memoir. It is not uncommon to recognize Gornick's descriptive words which play into a deeper analysis of the roles and discrepancies which exist in American society. Often, she reveals her own thoughts and feelings about the forces at play. However, the conclusion of fowl play or a just call is always left to the reader.

In 1865, the feminist movement had lost ground. The Civil War ended and African American men demanded their own right to vote. Elizabeth Stanton's stand on this issue split the women's movement in half. She believed in universal suffrage. While many within her movement were willing to wait longer, Stanton was unwilling to compromise. All must have suffrage, regardless of sex or color. Otherwise, a true democracy cannot exist unless everyone can be initiated into the governmental system.

When the 16th Amendment arose, many competing interests wanted in. Stanton wanted the amendment to enfranchise women. Unfortunately, the 16th went on to authorize income taxes. Women would have to wait until the 20th Amendment to receive their vote. Tragically, Stanton would not be able to see her long fought victory.

A few years before Stanton's death, she realized that until women release themselves from religious beliefs, they cannot attain the vote. For over fifty years of advocating, fighting, and persuading minds that women must have the right to vote, she now understood that she had made a miscalculation. Throughout the years, Stanton believed that women must have suffrage first. Then, they can break from the imposition of religiosity. After pondering the issue and carefully rereading the Bible, she concluded that religion holds the greatest obstacle for women to obtain the vote. They must free themselves from religion first so they can gain political equality.

Gornick is intriguing, intellectually stimulating, and true to her subject. Her work is based on letters, memoirs, notes, clippings, resolutions, and personal sources which add humanity to an individual larger than life. The writing is incisive, knowledgeable, and well-thought out. Readers of history, social movements, politics, and women's studies will enjoy reading this biography. Although this is a work about a remarkable feminist, I believe the biography is not only written for only one group, sex, or genre reader. I certainly know had Elizabeth Cady Stanton been alive today, she would equally welcome all readers. It is a book for the universal.

[Happyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quest tale about a woman realizing her true self through activism. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is frequently represented as Susan B. Anthony’s comrade-in-arms who stayed home with the babies while Susan did the crusading. Yes, the woman was a baby machine for a time (seven children) but she was an uncompromising truth-teller. In reality, as she said, “I forge the thunderbolts and Susan launches them," with those thunderbolts becoming increasingly more radical and far-reaching.

What she lacked in tact, she made up for in intellectual courage. She was threatening because her views challenged the supposed security and structure of middle-class living. Many of her ideas were ahead of their time. I understand the uproar against her advocating divorce on the grounds of incompatibility because she essentially was advocating knocking the crutches away from women who did not yet have the laws, education, and mindset to know how to walk unaided. With the The Woman’s Bible, she was insightful enough to see that mindsets would need to change, including those religiously determined, before the laws would change.

A lot of great thinking packed into 132 pages. A quick and worthy read on the intolerability of inequality.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made me a little crazy. It's not really a straight biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton; it's also a personal essay by Gornick about her feminist roots and reflections on Stanton. I found Gornick's personal reflections to be so irritating that I had no faith in her analysis of Stanton. She struck me as completely unable to imagine or experience the social structures of Stanton's time without the most annoying kind of stereotypcial academic feminist disdain. Not that there is not much to find horrifying; it truly is shocking to think of how completely a married woman lacked any basic rights - to vote, divorce, have any say in her sex life, hold property. And Stanton was way beyond her time in her perspective on these things. But somehow Gornick's tone just drove me up the wall. I wanted way more Stanton and way less Gornick.

[Lelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning more about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the courage with which she spoke truths that made people angry. I love how Stanton was compelled by her passion for equality to rise to her full potential. And there are moments of real insight in the book, such as the way waking up to the reality of inequality doesn’t always make us better, kinder, more inclusive people.

However, I don’t have much appetite for pitched political battles and the ups and downs a diehard reformer must be willing to endure, so much of this book felt like a tedious rehashing of the frustration and disappointment Stanton and others faced as the women’s suffrage movement stalled.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Vivian Gornick
Published September 5th 2006 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

A full-length book about the most grandmotherly figure of the suffragette movement would be dull in anyone else’s hands. But Gornick uses the letters of Stanton and the clear passion her subject had for equality to craft a fully dimensional, interesting text.
Stanton is perhaps most famous for the last speech of her career, ‘The Solitude of Self.’ This presentation praised loneliness – and focused on the bittersweet loneliness of an intellectual isolated on the island of her radical ideas. Stanton dressed like a bourgeois and thought like a revolutionary, and most of her ideas seemed light-years ahead of her time. She is quoted as saying “I feel it to be my special mission to tell people what they are not prepared to hear.” Many of her radical ideas now seem like universal truths; she pushed for a secular view of women, universal suffrage, and granting women full rights to petition for divorce.
As a second-wave feminist, Gornick uses Stanton to learn about her own personal views on equality, feminism, and the passion that drives what she calls “the odd women.” Women’s rights, Gornick notes, became the window through which Stanton was able to see the entire world. This profundity about the human condition reflects Gornick’s own introduction into progressive, radical feminist politics. Gornick notes that “the women problem” (the nineteenth century term for the mass awakening of upper-class women in order to demand more rights) is a doorway through which the author and Stanton both stepped through in order to transcend to a higher plane of thinking. ‘Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton’ is as much about the author as it is about the subject. Gornick cannot help but reflect on her own views of equality and rights; at one point she declares with no hyperbole that, like her subject, she “cannot live” without equality.

Gornick uses some unusual literary techniques. A prime example of this is an interlude about feminism that she imagines Louisa May Alcott’s titular ‘Little Women’ engage in:
Cries Jo in 1860, tossing her hat in the air. “I intend to fight for women’s rights. Won’t it be fun, Bethy, stomping around New York with an Education for Women placard on my chest?”

Gornick is not merely focused on the (albeit interesting) life of Stanton. She wants the full picture of the first-wave feminist: her writings, her context according to her contemporaries, and Stanton’s own influence on Gornick. Traditionally a novelist, Gornick frames Stanton’s life as the great story that it is, creating literary justice for one of the more alienated figures of the 1800s.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a deeply insightful portrait of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It's not a straightforward biography and Vivian Gornick brings a beautiful perspective to Stanton's immeasurably valuable body of work. Great writing can bring things you might have learned in the past in a new and fascinating light, and that's what this book did for me - and made me unendingly grateful for what Elizabeth Cady Stanton did for women not just in the United States but in the world, forevermore.

Beyond that, I found great benefit, personally, in the spotlight that Gornick shines on the struggle Stanton consistently found within herself. Should she push an issue close to her heart personally that could dilute her message or damage her credibility? Should she hold back and fight the battles that she might more easily win, in order to live to fight another day? It's still a relevant political struggle, particularly with regard to Feminism, and she rode the line with grace and stature that we can all learn from today.

[Linda]

I love this quote: "No matter how women prefer to lean, to be protected and supported, nor how much men desire to have them do so they must make the voyage of life alone, and for safety in an emergency, they must know something of the laws of navigation. To guide our own craft, we must be captain, pilot, engineer; with chart and compass to stand at the wheel; to watch the winds and waves, and know when to take in the sail, and to read the signs in the firmament overall ... and if not equal to the occasion, alike they perish."

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Gornick's mixture of historical analysis of Stanton, the historical background she adds to explain the issues Stanton faced, and the commonalities that she highlights with the modern feminist experience all combine to make this an excellent book. Gornick also adds a philosophical component that ties the American feminist experience through the years and explains how radical feminism, even as what is radical changes, fits into the American tradition of dissent.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second time I'm reading this book. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's thinking is so important to feminists - it just feels like time to read it again.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, and I was surprised that a book about Elizabeth Cady Stanton could be so interesting. I admit that I'd long dismissed her as a racist elite from the past, someone who had nothing to say to me, a granddaughter of the illiterate immigrants she so despised. Not so. Vivian Gornick, in her combination of research and personal narrative, has rendered Stanton whole, along with the ongoing disparity between the status of men and women in the United States. Inequality was born into this country with the founders. Stanton was an idealist, exacting, rational, and yet not without compassion. Also, thinking about the way that she and Susan B. Anthony traveled the country before highways and cars, on stagecoaches and without comfort, all to spread their message, is astonishing. Gornick weaves Stanton's own words seamlessly into the larger narrative of women's history in the United States, and what a terrible history it has been. She also contextualizes Stanton's racism and xenophobia without excusing it, and highlights Stanton's awareness that the "causes" of women's suffrage and Black suffrage were pitted against each other, and that Stanton favored universal suffrage. When forced to choose, she chose herself; she chose women, and she did it with contempt and disdain for men she deemed "lesser." She had a passion for equality that Vivian Gornick reveals called to her own passion for equality. I realized while listening to this book each night that I also had a passion for equality, which has not necessarily made my life more enjoyable. In some ways, it is the source of conflict with my family of origin. I'm tired of being treated as lesser or "odd," as Gornick puts it. I am going to read her book Odd Women next.

[Susan Oleksiw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Cady Stanton is less well known than some of her colleagues in the movements of the 19th century, but she seems to be the one who stayed true to the principles of full equality for all. Using the last speech she gave as an entry into understanding her life and work, Vivian Gornick draws a detailed and warm picture of Stanton throughout her long years. The title of her last speech is also the title of the book, The Solitude of Self, a reflection of her own personal growth and, perhaps, her response to the growing distance she felt between herself and the movement she'd devoted her life to.

Gornick makes at the outset that this is not a full biography, but the story is rich enough to challenge that statement. We learn about her early education, her marriage to a man her parents disapproved of, the rise of her career while she was also raising seven children, and emotionally supporting a man whose career dwindled in comparison to hers.

The book is also a path into the author's own life experience as an emerging feminist and writer. Gornick interweaves some of her own views in the beginning and at the conclusion, but these do not detract from Stanton's life story or our understanding of her.

Gornick places Stanton between Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir, as their equal in intellect and vision, as the three great feminist thinkers of the century.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read this because the n+1 book quiz recommended it to me (also I could stand to know my early American feminism better). Vivian Gornick is a wonderful writer so I really enjoyed this - and learned a lot. Learned some fun facts along the way, such as the fact that the first woman admitted to the Boston Athenaeum (Lydia Maria Child, in 1833) was promptly kicked out for writing a "radical" piece entitled "an appeal in favour of that class of americans called africans". Also there was a great reference to a Flaubert quote I will forever use: "dress like a bourgeois, think like a revolutionary".

It's a short book (a long essay really) but she does a good job of describing the tension between Stanton and her fellow feminists with the abolitionist movement at the time (and tension with other feminists), as well as situating her own experience with 1960's feminism as a journalist. Of course, the book really focuses on how alienating and lonely activism can be. Minus 2 stars for no mention of how Stanton talked about or thought about (or didn't think about) suffrage for black women.

[Kevin]

The subordinate title suggests this book is as much about who Elizabeth Cady Stanton was and what her experiences and struggles mean to a modern idea of feminism and democracy as it is a biography. A biographical essay with an emphasis on the essay aspect. Reading this book as a man I worked to be a listener to both Stanton and Gornick's perspectives while trying as much as possible to not impose myself on my own reading of this text. This was just a chance to listen.
With that in mind, I could not help but find Stanton's experiences thoroughly engaging and relative. Her activism and struggle invoke an emotional reaction from me. Additionally, I've gained an appreciation for Gornick's intellect and thought-provoking prose. I imagine this book will provide an opening for me to engage with both Stanton's biography and Gornick's work in the future.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the long and are your arduous history of feminism. Read it if you want to know who spend time with Susan B. Anthony, or to find out what a badass Stanton was.
"It is humiliating for a woman of my years to stand up before men twenty years younger, and ask them for the privilege of enjoying my right as a citizen in a Republic.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book, hardly a full biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but it tells of her defining passion for equality from the 1848 Conference in Seneca Falls to her death in 1902. In this year of the centennial of the 19th amendment, this book is a good reminder of an amazing woman whose commitment never faltered.

[Jennifer Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know why I don’t read more biographies. The author has done a wonderful job of bringing Elizabeth Cady Stanton‘s thoughts and experiences to life. I would go back and read this again. Especially chapter 6 and the conclusion. Excellent. Would recommend.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting essay on Stanton, feminism, etc. I support equality of women but I do not agree with her anti-Religion views.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gornick wrote a reminder of Stanton’s importance as a thinker and feminist activist. It’s wonderful to get a feminist leader of one generation commenting on a feminist leader from an earlier generation.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I have to say is: <3

Disclaimer: although this is mostly a work of reflective nonfiction, the book is mega geared toward women. Seriously. I'm not sure if my reception would be as warm and fuzzy if I didn't have the double X going on myself. That being said, it's a well written take on an important woman in American History. Yay!

[daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

writing equal parts biography and autobiography, gornick nicely combines a fascinating intellectual history of susan b. anthony's somewhat lesser known comrade with her own story of feminist awakening and inspiration.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing hisory

[Destinyhunt12 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading feminist history, however this book in particular just didn't grab me. Although I did particularly enjoy reading the author's personal interaction with this material.

[Jennifer Rolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the author's approach to writing biography in this book. It didn't get lost in the 'nitty-gritty' and elaborate on details but felt she applied a distant gaze to the woman and I found this really refreshing. I did however find the conclusion rather grating, particularly the cultural pomposity that feminism is truly American. Insularity?