The Power of Her Sympathy: The Autobiography and Journal of Catharine Maria Sedgwick

by Catharine Maria Sedgwick

An illuminating collection of writings by this remarkable early American author.

165 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 1993

About the author

Catharine Maria Sedgwick was born December 28, 1789 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As a young woman, Sedgwick took charge of a school in Lenox. She converted from Calvinism to Unitarianism, which led her to write a pamphlet denouncing religious intolerance. This further inspired her to write her first novel, A New-England Tale.

With her work much in demand, from the 1820s to the 1850s, Sedgwick made a good living writing short stories for a variety of periodicals. She died in 1867, and by the end of the 19th century, she had been relegated to near obscurity. There was a rise of male critics who deprecated women's writing as they worked to create an American literature.

Interest in Sedgwick's works and an appreciation of her contribution to American literature has been stimulated by the late 20th century's feminist movement. Beginning in the 1960s, feminist scholars began to re-evaluate women's contributions to literature and other arts, and created new frames of reference for considering their work. In addition, the advent of low-cost electronic reproductions, which became available at the end of the 20th century, made Sedgwick and other nineteenth-century authors' work more accessible for study and pleasure.

Reviews

[Gina Ursino · Rating 3 out of 5]

the woman is amazing but the professor speaking before her entries I could do without. I did not need someone educating me on how I should feel or interrupting the flow of the text to try and brainwash me into her view of the author. sedjwick was a amazing women that worked through truths that are both timeless and a pure reflection of the make dominated time she lived in. her journals so poigbantly point out how money educates and also gives voice to opinions, male or female. so many woman of her time could not read or write and her reflections lost upon illiteracy. I have read her books, visited her grave and seen her sedjwick home. her work is not lost because all women now have the opportunity for literacy and the rare chance to see how far our sex has come. Catherine Maria Sedgwick was a pioneer, much like Jane Austin and Louisa May Alcott. All gave up marriage for spinsterhood and creativity. All gave up child bearing for the opportunity to live and educate all around them. All three had to sacrifice intimacy and a home of their own to preserve their opportunities to write. If you read any of their books remember that they gave everything for us to understand their history and know what their contemporary society gave and took. I should give the journals all stars possible but the interrupter of the book needs to be silent and let us all come to our own feelings about the work and not enrich her own entitlement.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pending.