A Lydia Maria Child Reader

by Carolyn L. Karcher (Editor)

From the 1820s to the 1870s, Lydia Maria Child was as familiar to the American public as her Thanksgiving song, "Over the river and through the wood, / To grandfather’s house we go," remains today. Hardly a sphere of nineteenth-century life can be found in which Child did not figure prominently as a pathbreaker. She crusaded against slavery and racism, combated religious bigotry, championed women’s rights, publicized the plight of the urban poor, and campaigned for justice toward Native Americans. Showing an uncanny ability to pinpoint and respond to new cultural needs, Child pioneered almost every category of nineteenth-century American letters—historical fiction, the short story, children’s literature, the domestic advice book, women’s history, antislavery fiction, journalism, and the literature of aging.
This rich collection is the first to represent the full range of Child’s contributions as a literary innovator, social reformer, and progressive thinker over a career spanning six decades. It features stories, editorials, articles, and letters to politicians culled from rare newspapers and periodicals and never before published in book form; extracts from her trailblazing childrearing manual, history of women, and primer for the emancipated slaves; and a generous sampling of her best-known writings on slavery, the Indian question, poverty, and women’s rights. Witty, incisive, and often daringly unconventional, Child’s writings open a panoramic window on nineteenth-century American culture while addressing issues still relevant to our own time. In this anthology, the editor of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl reemerges in her own right as one of the nation’s greatest prophets.

464 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 1997

About the author

Carolyn L. Karcher is the author of The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child and the editor of Tourgee's novel Bricks Without Straw.

Reviews

[Clarissa Simmens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Karcher was my favorite English professor in the 1980s (I had a different last name because I was married then). It was an exciting time to be in school for women and being an English major and a feminist, the works of Lydia Maria Child enhanced the entire experience. The literary canon was predominantly male, and here was an absolutely wonderful writer that none of us students had ever read. I remember reading one of the Child stories (sorry, cannot remember the title) and Dr. Karcher compared it to the famous Rip Van Winkle one because of its similar theme. Anything they write (both Dr. Karcher and Lydia Maria Child) will awaken many emotions in the reader: delight, anger, wonder... Highly recommended!

[noodle]

I was reading the Wikipedia article about cryonics, and the "Cryonics in Popular Culture" section mentioned a late-1800s short story called "Hilda Silfverling, A Fantasy," wherein "the main character is preserved by cryonics and revived after the passage of a hundred years." The age of the story surprised me a little, and I liked the title. I discovered it was collected in this volume, which looks like it may be an interesting read all around.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lydia Maria Child is my hero.

[Chrisanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that she works for equality, not superiority.