SUSAN B. ANTHONY

That Susan B. Anthony and fellow reformers succeeded in getting equal rights legislation passed despite the now unbelievable hostility they faced is testimony to the dedication and strength of will and personality exhibited by some truly exceptional women. How much greater the pity then that a life so dedicated to achieving these goals is here reduced to pap by a biographer who obviously doesn't believe in the ability of younger readers to recognize drama when they encounter it. Ms. Noble fills her over-fictionalized version of Susan B. Anthony's early years with such insipid dialogue that only the most determined of readers is likely to plow through the first half of the book to the point where even this author cannot keep the subject from asserting herself. For a more concise and far more readable account of Susan B. Anthony, placed in the context of the women's rights movement, young people are better off reading the relevant chapters in Gurko's Ladies of Seneca Falls (KR, 1974) and spending the time and energy saved on raising consciousness.