Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist
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She sat there on the platform waiting to be introduced; she was calm and poised, with her hands folded easily in her lap. Every eye in the hall seemed to be riveted upon her. Her charismatic force captured her audience, and they anticipated her words with eagerness. On this trip to St. Louis, throngs were coming out just to catch a glimpse of her; among them were many devoted followers. It was 1895, and suffrage organizations across the country were celebrating the seventy-fifth birthday of Susan B. Anthony. She had become a legend in her own time.
Waiting for the program to begin, she was caught by surprise when seventy-five children--black and white--filed into the packed hall, marched ceremoniously to the platform, and, as they passed by her, each laid a rose in her lap. After the venerable Susan B. Anthony's young niece stepped forward and presented her rose with a kiss for her aunt, the rest of the children did the same.
Two days in St. Louis; next stop Denver. The excitement there was even more dramatic and festive, for the women of Colorado had recently won the vote. Now they heralded Susan B. Anthony as the symbol of their victory. 'America's Joan of Arc Shakes Hands with an Army of Women Voters,' a newspaper headline proclaimed.
A few days later she was en I route to Utah, then on to Idaho. Everywhere honors preceded her; speeches and testimonies told of her courage, her selfless dedication, a life committed to womankind. Her next stop was California. Crossing the Sierra Nevada range the train stopped on the wind-blown, snow-laden Donner Pass, and Susan stepped out for a moment into the radiant sunshine to take a deep breath of fresh mountain air. The panoramic vista was breathtaking. Since childhood, when she had roamed the Berkshire Hills and sat behind her house looking up at Mount Greylock, the majesty of nature had the effect of a spiritual force upon her.
Finally, she arrived in San Francisco. The adulation that greeted this always-campaigning woman culminated with her entrance into the Woman's Congress. Thousands packed into Golden Gate Hall, while hundreds more pressed at the doors trying to get in. When Susan B. Anthony entered from the wings of the stage, the crowd rose in thunderous applause and cheers. A sea of white handkerchiefs waved in the air--a silent tribute from the older women who had learned in their youth that this greeting, the 'Chautauqua salute' was more ladylike than loud handclapping. Many could not hold back their tears when Susan B. Anthony began to speak. They were remembering the days when this woman had been one of the most reviled and ridiculed in the nation.
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About the Book
Susan B. Anthony had not started out with a dream. Rather, her Quaker beginnings were humble. She spent days doing household chores and preparing for her future role as a wife. But by her late twenties she had chosen striving for social justice over marriage as a vocation. She left her secure teaching position to become a politician and a charismatic leader of woman's rights. Here, in this brilliant biography, is the portrait of this singular woman - who was she was, what she felt, and how she thought.
About the Author
Kathleen Barry, an internationally known feminist and sociologist, was drawn to the life of Susan B. Anthony from her own experiences since the 1960's in the women's movement. She is a global human's rights activist and a Professor of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University. Kirkus reviews called SUSAN B. ANTHONY: A BIOGRAPHY OF A SINGULAR FEMINIST (originally by New York University Press in 1988 and Ballantine 1990) a "a fine, feminist biography," with "a compelling and moving narrative." Another reviewer noted that "this is not just a biography of Anthony's life, it is also a very successful account of a revolution and of a tremendous conversion experience that politically ripped the veils of oppression from the eyes of many women." But this book's ultimate value as a biography is found in one reviewer's contrast to other books on Anthony that describe her as cold, "Barry's is quite different: it paints a more human aide to Anthony." Barry was featured in the PBS special "One Woman, One Vote," and she appeared in the Ken Burns PBS special "Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony," Fall, 1999. Kathleen Barry lectures widely in the U.S. and abroad and is the author of the landmark book FEMALE SEXUAL SLAVERY, originally published in 1979 (Prentice Hall) and translated into six languages. She founded the United Nations NonGovernmental Organization, The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women an international activist organization. She is the author of PROSTITUTION OF SEXUALITY: GLOBAL EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN, (New York University Press, 1995) which includes the proposed international law, The Convention Against sexual Exploitation that she developed. Japan, Sweden and Vietnam are among the countries that have expanded women's rights by adopting this law. She has worked in Vietnam on issues related to women and the family and published a collection of Vietnamese and American papers in her 1996 book VIETNAM'S WOMEN IN TRANSITION, (St. Martin's Press, USA and Macmillan, London). This historic book is recognized as the first collaboration published in English and Vietnamese between Americans and Vietnamese since the American war in Vietnam. She is the 1996 recipient of The Pennsylvania State University International Achievement Award. Kathleen Barry is completing a new book on single women. The Spontaneous Self: Women, Identity and Spirit. She is working on another book that explores women's experiences of the Northern Ireland Troubles.