num_pages: 320
description: Unfailingly vividand fair-minded  The AtlanticRiveting  The New York Times Book ReviewA biography with the verve and pace of a delicious novel...a polemic and a pleasure.  The Boston GlobeThe first biography to reveal Julia Ward Howethe author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic as a feminist pioneer who fought her own battle for creative freedom and independence.Julia Ward (18191910) was a heiress and aspiring poet when she married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe an internationally-acclaimed pioneer in the education of the blind. Together the Howes knew many of the key figures of their era from Charles Dickens to John Brown. But he also wasted her inheritance isolated and discouraged her and opposed her literary ambitions. Julia persisted and continued to publish poems and plays while raising six children.Authorship of the Battle Hymn of the Republic made her celebrated and revered. But Julia was also continuing to fight a civil war at home; she became a pacifist suffragist and world traveler. She came into her own as a tireless campaigner for womens rights and social reform. Esteemed author Elaine Showalter tells the story of Howes determined self-creation and brings to life the society she inhabited and the obstacles she overcame.
language: English
title: The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe
publisher: Simon & Schuster