Celebrate Women’s History During the Month of March!
March is Women’s History Month and the Mercer County Library System has scores of biographies of notable women as well as volumes highlighting the accomplishments of women in all facets of life. Here are just a few of those worth checking out:
Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes who Shaped the Virgin Queen
By Tracy Borman
A re-creation of the life, times, and key relationships of one of the most iconic women in history: Elizabeth I
“Although Elizabeth is famous for deriding her sex and flirting publicly with favorites like Robert Dudley, Borman explores how other women shaped Elizabeth's personality early on. The beheadings of both her mother, Anne Boleyn, and stepmother Katherine Howard at Henry VIII's behest, and half-sister Mary's humiliating subservience to a foreign prince, made Elizabeth wary of men and convinced her that she must remain a virgin to succeed as queen regnant. Elizabeth shared a passion for religious reform and lively discourse with her stepmother Katherine Parr while her sister Mary's inflexible Catholicism taught her to never openly commit to any single policy. Elizabeth inherited Anne Boleyn's cruelty and vindictiveness, evident in her treatment of cousins who were prettier, younger rivals to the throne: Katherine Grey, who was imprisoned until her premature death, and Mary, Queen of Scots, also imprisoned and eventually beheaded. A standout in the flood of Tudor biographies, this smart book offers a detailed exploration of Elizabeth's private relationships with her most intimate advisers and family members.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Muriel Spark: The Biography
By Martin Stannard
“Invited by Spark in 1992 to write her biography, Martin Stannard is sympathetic, perceptive and nonjudgmental…[he] is an excellent guide…to Spark's affinity with European postmodernism in general. It's not clear whether he liked Spark, but he surely admires her work, and with this meticulous biography, he has placed her among the major British writers of the postwar generation.”—The Washington Post
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
By Gail Collins
A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research—covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work—When Everything Changed is the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of "Help Wanted—Male" and "Help Wanted—Female" ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. New York Times columnist and bestselling author Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way.
When Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New York Times columnist is known. Older readers, men and women alike, will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once were—"Father Knows Best" and "My Little Margie" on TV; daily weigh-ins for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with drama and dreams—some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's imagining.
“Gail Collins's rich, readable account of the last 50 years of the women's movement…reminds us of the triumphs, mortifications and hilarity of the early decades, as well as the personalities.”—The Washington Post
The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America
By Raymond Arsenault
On Easter Sunday 1939, celebrated vocalist Marian Anderson sang before a throng of seventy-five thousand at the Lincoln Memorial. Though she was at the peak of a dazzling career, Anderson had recently been barred from performing at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall because she was black. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR over the incident, turning it into national news. The courageous Anderson made the most of a politically charged occasion, captivating the world with her talent and her dignity. This richly textured story from acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault captures an early milestone in the struggle for civil rights, the quiet heroism of Anderson, and a moment that still inspires Americans of every race.
“A notable addition to the historical record…Arsenault’s book is a timely reminder of the worm of history turning once more.”—Boston Globe
“Raymond Arsenault delivers not a proper biography of Anderson . . .but a tightly focused look at the political and cultural events that led up to and came after her famous 1939 concert. It's a story that's well worth retelling.”—The New York Times
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
By Harriet Reisen
Louisa May Alcott portrays a writer as worthy of interest in her own right as her most famous character, Jo March, and addresses all aspects of Alcott’s life: the effect of her father’s self-indulgent utopian schemes; her family’s chronic economic difficulties and frequent uprootings; her experience as a nurse in the Civil War; the loss of her health and frequent recourse to opiates in search of relief from migraines, insomnia, and symptomatic pain. Stories and details culled from Alcott’s journals; her equally rich letters to family, friends, publishers, and admiring readers; and the correspondence, journals, and recollections of her family, friends, and famous contemporaries provide the basis for this lively account of the author’s classic rags-to-riches tale.
Alcott would become the equivalent of a multimillionaire in her lifetime based on the astounding sales of her books, leaving contemporaries like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry James in the dust. This biography explores Alcott’s life in the context of her works, all of which are to some extent autobiographical. A fresh, modern take on this remarkable and prolific writer, who secretly authored pulp fiction, harbored radical abolitionist views, and completed heroic service as a Civil War nurse, Louisa May Alcott is in the end also the story of how the all-time beloved American classic Little Women came to be. This revelatory portrait will present the popular author as she was and as she has never been seen before.
“[A] well-researched and well-written biography of the author of Little Women.”—Publishers Weekly
Sojourner Truth’s America
By Margaret Washington
This fascinating biography tells the story of nineteenth-century America through the life of one of its most charismatic and influential characters. In an in-depth account of this amazing activist, Margaret Washington unravels Sojourner Truth's world within the broader panorama of African American slavery and the nation's most significant reform era.
Organized chronologically into three distinct eras of Truth's life, Sojourner Truth's America examines the complex dynamics of her times, beginning with the transnational contours of her spirituality and early life as Isabella and her embroilments in legal controversy. Truth's awakening during nineteenth-century America's progressive surge then propelled her ascendancy as a rousing preacher and political orator despite her inability to read and write. Throughout the book, Washington explores Truth's passionate commitment to family and community, including her vision for a beloved community that extended beyond race, gender, and socioeconomic condition and embraced a common humanity. For Sojourner Truth, the significant model for such communalism was a primitive, prophetic Christianity.
Illustrated with dozens of images of Truth and her contemporaries, Sojourner Truth's America draws a delicate and compelling balance between Sojourner Truth's personal motivations and the influences of her historical context. Washington provides important insights into the turbulent cultural and political climate of the age while also separating the many myths from the facts concerning this legendary American figure.
Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters
By Marilyn Monroe
Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts in Monroe’s own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos.
These bits of text—jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead—reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances so memorable emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so heartbreaking.
Fragments is an event—an unforgettable book that will redefine one of the greatest stars of the twentieth century and which, nearly 50 years after her death, will definitively reveal Marilyn Monroe’s humanity.
Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes who Shaped the Virgin QueenBy Tracy Borman
A re-creation of the life, times, and key relationships of one of the most iconic women in history: Elizabeth I
“Although Elizabeth is famous for deriding her sex and flirting publicly with favorites like Robert Dudley, Borman explores how other women shaped Elizabeth's personality early on. The beheadings of both her mother, Anne Boleyn, and stepmother Katherine Howard at Henry VIII's behest, and half-sister Mary's humiliating subservience to a foreign prince, made Elizabeth wary of men and convinced her that she must remain a virgin to succeed as queen regnant. Elizabeth shared a passion for religious reform and lively discourse with her stepmother Katherine Parr while her sister Mary's inflexible Catholicism taught her to never openly commit to any single policy. Elizabeth inherited Anne Boleyn's cruelty and vindictiveness, evident in her treatment of cousins who were prettier, younger rivals to the throne: Katherine Grey, who was imprisoned until her premature death, and Mary, Queen of Scots, also imprisoned and eventually beheaded. A standout in the flood of Tudor biographies, this smart book offers a detailed exploration of Elizabeth's private relationships with her most intimate advisers and family members.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Muriel Spark: The BiographyBy Martin Stannard
The compelling first biography of a twentieth-century literary enigma
“Stannard is particularly good on Spark's postwar years, when she was struggling, half-starving, to make a life for herself on the fringe, or the fringe of the fringe, of literary London . . . The transforming event of these years was Spark's conversion to Catholicism in 1954, and Stannard's account of this is as full as any we are likely to get.”—The New York Times
“Stannard is particularly good on Spark's postwar years, when she was struggling, half-starving, to make a life for herself on the fringe, or the fringe of the fringe, of literary London . . . The transforming event of these years was Spark's conversion to Catholicism in 1954, and Stannard's account of this is as full as any we are likely to get.”—The New York Times
“Invited by Spark in 1992 to write her biography, Martin Stannard is sympathetic, perceptive and nonjudgmental…[he] is an excellent guide…to Spark's affinity with European postmodernism in general. It's not clear whether he liked Spark, but he surely admires her work, and with this meticulous biography, he has placed her among the major British writers of the postwar generation.”—The Washington Post
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the PresentBy Gail Collins
When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation.
A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research—covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work—When Everything Changed is the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of "Help Wanted—Male" and "Help Wanted—Female" ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. New York Times columnist and bestselling author Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way.
When Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New York Times columnist is known. Older readers, men and women alike, will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once were—"Father Knows Best" and "My Little Margie" on TV; daily weigh-ins for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with drama and dreams—some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's imagining.
“Gail Collins's rich, readable account of the last 50 years of the women's movement…reminds us of the triumphs, mortifications and hilarity of the early decades, as well as the personalities.”—The Washington Post
The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened AmericaBy Raymond Arsenault
On Easter Sunday 1939, celebrated vocalist Marian Anderson sang before a throng of seventy-five thousand at the Lincoln Memorial. Though she was at the peak of a dazzling career, Anderson had recently been barred from performing at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall because she was black. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR over the incident, turning it into national news. The courageous Anderson made the most of a politically charged occasion, captivating the world with her talent and her dignity. This richly textured story from acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault captures an early milestone in the struggle for civil rights, the quiet heroism of Anderson, and a moment that still inspires Americans of every race.
“A notable addition to the historical record…Arsenault’s book is a timely reminder of the worm of history turning once more.”—Boston Globe
“Raymond Arsenault delivers not a proper biography of Anderson . . .but a tightly focused look at the political and cultural events that led up to and came after her famous 1939 concert. It's a story that's well worth retelling.”—The New York Times
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little WomenBy Harriet Reisen
Louisa May Alcott portrays a writer as worthy of interest in her own right as her most famous character, Jo March, and addresses all aspects of Alcott’s life: the effect of her father’s self-indulgent utopian schemes; her family’s chronic economic difficulties and frequent uprootings; her experience as a nurse in the Civil War; the loss of her health and frequent recourse to opiates in search of relief from migraines, insomnia, and symptomatic pain. Stories and details culled from Alcott’s journals; her equally rich letters to family, friends, publishers, and admiring readers; and the correspondence, journals, and recollections of her family, friends, and famous contemporaries provide the basis for this lively account of the author’s classic rags-to-riches tale.
Alcott would become the equivalent of a multimillionaire in her lifetime based on the astounding sales of her books, leaving contemporaries like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry James in the dust. This biography explores Alcott’s life in the context of her works, all of which are to some extent autobiographical. A fresh, modern take on this remarkable and prolific writer, who secretly authored pulp fiction, harbored radical abolitionist views, and completed heroic service as a Civil War nurse, Louisa May Alcott is in the end also the story of how the all-time beloved American classic Little Women came to be. This revelatory portrait will present the popular author as she was and as she has never been seen before.
“[A] well-researched and well-written biography of the author of Little Women.”—Publishers Weekly
Sojourner Truth’s AmericaBy Margaret Washington
This fascinating biography tells the story of nineteenth-century America through the life of one of its most charismatic and influential characters. In an in-depth account of this amazing activist, Margaret Washington unravels Sojourner Truth's world within the broader panorama of African American slavery and the nation's most significant reform era.
Organized chronologically into three distinct eras of Truth's life, Sojourner Truth's America examines the complex dynamics of her times, beginning with the transnational contours of her spirituality and early life as Isabella and her embroilments in legal controversy. Truth's awakening during nineteenth-century America's progressive surge then propelled her ascendancy as a rousing preacher and political orator despite her inability to read and write. Throughout the book, Washington explores Truth's passionate commitment to family and community, including her vision for a beloved community that extended beyond race, gender, and socioeconomic condition and embraced a common humanity. For Sojourner Truth, the significant model for such communalism was a primitive, prophetic Christianity.
Illustrated with dozens of images of Truth and her contemporaries, Sojourner Truth's America draws a delicate and compelling balance between Sojourner Truth's personal motivations and the influences of her historical context. Washington provides important insights into the turbulent cultural and political climate of the age while also separating the many myths from the facts concerning this legendary American figure.
Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, LettersBy Marilyn Monroe
Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts in Monroe’s own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos.
These bits of text—jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead—reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances so memorable emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so heartbreaking.
Fragments is an event—an unforgettable book that will redefine one of the greatest stars of the twentieth century and which, nearly 50 years after her death, will definitively reveal Marilyn Monroe’s humanity.
- Lisa S.
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