SINGING SISTERS

A biography of the Cary sisters, Phoebe and Alice Cary, 19th century American poets. They were brought up on a farm near Cincinnati, two of a large family with pious parents. There's an Alcott flavor in this story of a family united against the world, with their own rules, their jokes, the standards of behaviour. The author is very successful in recreating place, period and characters, though she faced a difficult task in bringing the two sisters alive. Alice was wholly devoted to her older sister, Rhods, and crushed by her death Phoebe helped bring Alice back to health through her , her gaiety and drollery, but it was an itinerant preacher who persuaded her to take her part in family affairs again. Alice's early success with her writing Phoebe to try her wings. Horace Greeley came to the farm to seek them out and encouraged them to come to New York; and Greeley and Barnum between them popularized their Sunday night suppers. Not a book for everyone, but it should be popular with girls who are interested in literature as a career.