From Sterling (ed., We Are Your Sisters, 1983), a full-scale biography that reveals the pioneering spirit of an early feminist and abolitionist. Abby Kelley (1811-87)—``the moral Joan of Arc of the world,'' according to William Lloyd Garrison—initiated the women's rights movement in this country but chose antislavery as her priority. As lecture agent, main organizer, and chief fund-raiser for the American Anti-Slavery Society, she established a network of regional abolitionist newspapers and local antislavery societies in the North and West. At numerous conventions and meetings, Kelley and her abolitionist husband, Stephen Foster, spoke before ``promiscuous audiences''—men and women. The Fosters denounced the constitution as a proslavery document and worked with ex-slaves Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth and feminists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone. They deplored the ``Slave Power'' interests of the Mexican War and used their Massachusetts home as a station on the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War erupted, Kelley urged emancipation as a war goal and demanded that slaves have full equality, land, and the vote. A dynamic political force, Kelley and her ``Abby Kelleyites'' lobbied for the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments even as Kelley courageously suffered a two-year illness, the loss of all her teeth, failing eyesight, and a dangerous operation for ovarian cancer. Though Kelley left little source material, Sterling has combed through hundreds of contemporary letters and newspaper articles to flesh out her human side. The plethora of conventions, meetings, and lectures occasionally slows the pace but underscores the commitment of a unique woman whose role in history has been neglected, Sterling says, by the bias of male historians and by suffragettes who felt Kelley should have pushed for a Fifteenth Amendment that included, in addition to voting rights for nonwhites, suffrage for women. A serviceable biography adding to the lore of a difficult period of growth in US history. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 25, 1991
ISBN: 0-393-03026-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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