Daughter of Boston: The Extraordinary Diary of a Nineteenth Century Woman Book

The vivid diary of a transcendentalist, early feminist, and writer—a female Samuel PepysIn nineteenth-century Boston, amidst the popular lecturing of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the discussion groups led by Margaret Fuller, sat a remarkable young woman, Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912): transcendentalist, early feminist, writer, reformer, and, perhaps most importantly, active diarist. During the seventy-five years that Dall kept a diary, she captured all the fascinating details of her sometimes agonizing personal life, and she also wrote about all the major figures who surrounded her. Her diary, filling forty-five volumes, is perhaps the longest running diary ever written by any American and the most complete account of a nineteenth-century woman’s life. In Daughter of Boston, scholar Helen Deese has painstakingly combed through these diaries and created a single fascinating volume of Dall’s observations, judgments, descriptions, and reactions.“Deese’s selections from the journals reveal Dall’s brilliant mind, her ready wit, and her deep understanding of the currents of change that swept the country during its first century of nationhood.” —Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters“Daughter of Boston is a major act of recovery, an important and even a timely work, restoring to us the full and satisfying presence of an extraordinary, active, strong and controversial woman of letters.” —Robert D. Richardson, author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire“Daughter of Boston provides a fascinating glimpse into a woman’s life in nineteenth-century New England.” —Anne E. Stein, Chicago Tribune“Anyone who has contemplated the conundrum of the glass ceiling that challenges contemporary women would do well to read this excerpted diary of social reformer Caroline Healey Dall for its reflection upon the conflicts that women faced a century and a half ago . . . An illuminating record of the controversies that continue to rankle American society today.” —Nancy Rubin Stuart, ForeWord MagazineHelen R. Deese is the Caroline Healey Dall editor for the Massachusetts Historical Society. She lives in Flint and Ann Arbor, Michigan.Read More