Best Selling Books by Lydia Maria Child

The Appeal is literature of high quality and stands as a classic of American reform.

Lydia Maria Francis Child was one of 19th-century America's most remarkable people. She was an abolitionist, women's rights activist, opponent of American expansionism, Indian rights activist, novelist, and journalist. In these letters, her wonderful intelligence and wit shine through during some of the most dramatic and important events in American history. Best known perhaps for her poem, "Over the River and Through the Woods," Child was a force in American activism and literature, sometimes shocking her audiences with issues such as opposition to male dominance and white suppremacy. She sympathized with radical abolitionist, John Brown, and exchanged letters with him, included in this volume. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

Prominent author and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child began writing her "letters" from New York in August 1841 as a response to the troubling realities marking her private and public life. In particular, she was preoccupied by her editorial duties at the National Anti-Slavery Standard and dismayed by the growing sectarian spirit of antislavery reform. Collected primarily from the pages of the Standard, her literary essays on women's rights, the preaching of African American minister Julia Pell, the Crosby Street Synagogue, animal magnetism, the engineering miracle of Croton Aqueduct, and countless other people, topics, and events capture the breathless and sometimes unsettling transformation of one representative hub of national life.In his general introduction and annotation of the text, Bruce Mills reconstructs the biographical and cultural context surrounding the book's publication and documents substantive changes between the Standard's version of the letters and the book form. This edition also includes ten letters that Child chose to omit from earlier editions, including essays on the farewell gathering for the Amistad captives at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the near lynching of British abolitionist George Thompson. Long considered among Child's best writing, Letters from New-York still captivates readers with its moving descriptions of enduring cultural realities. It offers readers a telling glimpse of New York as an emerging urban center and is an invaluable addition to the library of American literature.

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.

Hints to persons of moderate fortune: first published in the Massachusetts journal: p.[89]-113.