Quoting Matilda

by Susan Savion

Though Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are well-known historical names, that of Matilda Joslyn Gage usually evokes the response, "Who?" Yet, this amazing woman contributed equally for many years as part of a triumvirate with Anthony and Stanton. Matilda was involved in the women's movement from 1852 until her death in 1898. She became a noted speaker and writer on women's suffrage. She was born in Upstate New York to an abolitionist family, Indeed, her childhood home and her later long-time Greek Revival home (now a museum dedicated to her) in Fayetteville, New York, were both stops on the Underground Railroad. She was best known for her feminist and suffragist activities but was written out of history because she was considered by her peers to be too radical in all she proposed to accomplish. Inspired by the Haudenosaunee women who were her neighbors and who adopted her into their Mohawk wolf clan, she was determined to gain the rights of property ownership, governance, and equality of power for her 19th-century sisterhood. She had a life-long desire for justice and equality for all and was connected to the ideas of Theosophy and Unitarianism. This moved her to take on the inequality of women in religious institutions, which her contemporaries seemed too radical. Her book, Woman, Church and State, was deemed as "going too far by many. She championed women inventors and "The Matilda Effect" became her legacy. She was also the inspiration for her son-in-law L. Frank Baum's 14 Oz books. You will find her immensely quotable!

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 19, 2014

About the author

Susan Savion grew up on a farm near Highland, Illinois.

She has spent most of her career as a teacher. She has taught in rural, small town, suburban, and inner city schools at all levels. She was also a gymnastics judge for ten years.

Susan has published poems and has authored four middle-grade-teacher resource books, namely, Quotes to Start the Day, Quotes That Bring History to Life, Quotes to Stretch Your Brain, and Quotes to Spark Discussion. She is a member of Women Transcending Boundaries. She also edits a Transpersonal Psychology newsletter and is involved in many environmental groups and activities.

You can find Susan’s other website, paintings, and books at www.susansavionsstuff.com.

Reviews

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book when I visited the Matilda Joslyn Gage House late last year with my mom's PEO chapter. Even growing up in an area that proudly taught the history of woman's suffrage, Anthony, and Stanton, Gage was not someone I learned about until college when I was studying women's history and the first wave. Matilda is inspiring and a woman long before her time making much of her life's work still relevant today. This book collects and explains some of her prominent causes and quotes. Very quick to read but you'll be thinking it about it long after you're onto the next book.

[Frances Altman]

Interesting view into suffraists movement and an extraordinary woman.

[Cheryl Gatling]

Everybody knows the names of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, heroes of the early Women's Rights movement. But there was a third great leader, almost unknown today, Matilda Joslyn Gage. According to the book, she was written out of history for being too radical.

And she certainly was radical. She was a firebrand who supported equality and freedom for all oppressed people, not just women, but also blacks and Indians. She fought the patriarchy of the established church. She delved into goddess worship and spiritualism. She fought for what we would call reproductive rights, a woman's control over her own body.

Other interesting things about her are that she studied the matriarchal society of the local Iroquois, and they adopted her as an honorary member. Her daughter married L. Frank Baum, the writer of the Oz books. And she lived in Fayetteville, NY, which is in my home town of Syracuse.

This book includes a quote on each page (hence the title), with a nugget of information beneath it, and frequent photographs. I have one quarrel with the book. The quotes are written in a flowery script that is probably meant to be suggestive of period handwriting, but it is very hard to read. Many times I misread a word or a letter. I enjoyed learning the history, but I hated every minute of trying to decipher those quotes.

[Nann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped at publisher LitFire's booth at the ALA Midwinter Meeting where author Susan Savion was signing copies of "Quoting Matilda." I'm interested in women's history and in the suffrage movement so the subject appealed to me. Matilda Joslyn Gage was born and lived her life in upstate New York (1826-1898) was an outspoken proponent for equality for women, for freedom from religion, for the rights of native Americans. Her son-in-law was L. Frank Baum and there is a suggestion that Matilda was a model for Glinda the Good.

The book provided 87 quotations from Matilda's writings to which Savion adds explanatory paragraphs. It's interesting but sources are not cited consistently and there is no bibliography. Moreover, the quotations are printed in a display type that is difficult to read. There is a tremendous amount of white space. Some photos are captioned, others are not.

[Julie-Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm doing a research project on Gage and, sadly I found this book very disappointing. The quotes often don't have dates or context attached to them. The simple sentences below each quote are not only redundant but some are factually inaccurate, and there are many typographical errors. If you're looking for a more direct connection to Matilda's writings, I recommend buying some of the pamphlets available on the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation website (that's what I ended up doing); they have several full speeches and newspaper articles written by Matilda that are less than $5 each.