Traditional histories of the American transcendentalist movement begin in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s terms: describing a rejection of college books and church pulpits in favor of the individual power of “Man Thinking.” This essay collection asks how women who lacked the privileges of both college and clergy rose to thought. For them, reading alone and conversing together were the primary means of growth, necessarily in private and informal spaces both overlapping with those of the men and apart...

August 18, 2020, marked the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1920, women wearing yellow roses stood shoulder to shoulder in Tennessee, awaiting the roll call of men who would cast their votes for or against a woman’s right to a voice in government.Though this movement won rights for some women—an achievement to be acknowledged and celebrated—the struggle did not end there. Due to states’ laws and prohibitive policies, ...

I needed a date, fast. My options were limited, so I hired Easton Bosa.Falling for him wasn't in the cards. I only needed Easton to keep my Mama off my back and to have a peaceful Christmas without her asking me twenty-one questions. You know, when will you settle down, when will you have children, the list goes on and on. Those type of things.There's only one problem. I want more.Our night ends with us in my bed, waking up the next morning in a tan...

**“Humanity can be divided into three classes: men, women, and Margaret Fuller.”—Edgar Allan PoeA true American original—radical transcendentalist, intrepid journalist, and pioneering feminist—joins Library of America with the most authoritative single-volume collection of her writings ever, including many rare and previously unpublished works, newly transcribed from original notebooks and journals**Transcendentalist, journalist, feminist, activist, public intellectual, war...

Among nineteenth-century women’s rights reformers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) stands out for the maternal and secular advocacy that shaped her activism and public reception. A wife and mother of seven, she was also a prolific writer, transatlantic women’s rights leader, popular lecturer, congressional candidate, canny historian, and freethought champion. Her lifelong interest in women’s sexual and reproductive rights and late efforts to reform institutional religion are as relevant...