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For centuries women have been marginalized and overlooked in American literary history. That injustice is corrected in this entertaining and provocative collection of 350 years of poetry and fiction by American women.
From Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet to Margaret Fuller to Harriet Beecher Stowe, readers will encounter scores of lesser-known and forgotten writers who fully deserve to be rediscovered and enjoyed by new generations. Our famous women writers, including contemporary stars like Annie Proux and Jhumpa Lahiri, are showcased in their full literary context, offering an epic overview of the canon in one monumental, dazzling volume.
This landmark anthology features the best work of our best American women, and was inspired and informed by the author's groundbreaking history celebrating women writers, A Jury of Her Peers.
Introduction: The Mother of Us All
1. ANNE BRADSTREET (ca.1612–1672)
“The Prologue” (1650)
“The Author to Her Book” (1650)
“In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659” (1678)
“Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July
10th, 1666” (1667)
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” (1678)
2. MARY ROWLANDSON (1637–1711)
A Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson (1682)
3. JUDITH SARGENT MURRAY (1751–1820)
“Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of
Self-Complacency, especially in Female Bosoms” (1784)
Lines from “On the Equality of the Sexes” (1790)
4. PHILLIS WHEATLEY (ca. 1753–1784)
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773)
5. SUSANNAH HASWELL ROWSON (1762–1824)
From Charlotte Temple (1791):
Chapter VI: An Intriguing Teacher
Chapter XVIII: Reflections
6. CATHERINE MARIA SEDGWICK (1789–1867)
“Cacoethes Scribendi” (1830)
7. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY (1791–1865)
“Indian Names” (1849)
“Requests for Writing” from Letters of Life (1866)
8. CAROLINE KIRKLAND (1801–1864)
Chapter XXVIII, from A New Home—Who’ll Follow? (1839)
9. LYDIA MARIA CHILD (1802–1880)
“The Church in the Wilderness” (1828)
10. MARGARET FULLER (1810–1850)
From “Autobiographical Sketch” (1852)
11. FRANCES SARGENT LOCKE OSGOOD (1811–1850)
“He Bade Me Be Happy”(1849)
“Ah! Woman Still” (1850)
12. FRANCES MIRIAM BERRY WHICHER (1811–1852)
“The Widow Essays Poetry” from The Widow Bedott Papers,
(1856)
13. “FANNY FERN” (Sara Payson Willis Parton) (1811–1872)
Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom (1853)
14. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811–1896)
“The Village Do–Nothing” from Oldtown Folks, (1869)
15. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS (1815–1852)
“The Angel Over the Right Shoulder, or, The Beginning of
a New Year” (1852)
16. LOUISA AMELIA SMITH CLAPPE (1819–1906)
Letter 19, from The Shirley Letters from the California Mines,
1851–1852, (1922)
17. JULIA WARD HOWE (1819–1910)
“The Heart’s Astronomy” from Passion-Flowers (1853)
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862)
18. ALICE CARY (1820–1871)
“The Bridal Veil” (1866)
19. ELIZABETH DREW STODDARD (1823–1902)
“The Poet’s Secret” (1860)
“Before the Mirror”(1860)
20. PHOEBE CARY (1824–1871)
“Jacob”(1886)
“When Lovely Woman” (1886)
21. LUCY LARCOM (1824–1893)
“A Loyal Woman’s No” (1863)
“Weaving” (1869)
22. FRANCES E.W. HARPER (1825–1911)
“Aunt Chloe” (1872)
“Aunt Chloe’s Politics” (1872)
“Learning to Read” (1872)
“The Triumph of Freedom—A Dream” (1860)
23. ROSE TERRY COOKE (1827–1892)
“Bluebeard’s Closet” (1861)
“Arachne” (1881)
“Odd Miss Todd” (1882)
24. EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886)
138: “To fight aloud, is very brave -”
269:“Wild nights – Wild nights!”
339: “I like a look of Agony,”
25. HELEN HUNT JACKSON (1830–1885)
“The Prince’s Little Sweetheart” (1885)
26. REBECCA HARDING DAVIS (1831–1910)
“Marcia” (1876)
27. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832–1888)
“My Contraband” (1863)
“Transcendental Wild Oats” (1873)
28. HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD (1835–1921)
“Circumstance” (1860)
29. SARAH PIATT (1836–1919)
“The Palace-Burner” (1872)
“A New Thanksgiving” (1910)
30. CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON (1840–1894)
“Miss Grief” (1880)
“Rodham the Keeper” (1880)
31. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD (1844–1911)
“The Tenth of January” (1868)
32. EMMA LAZARUS (1849–1887)
“Echoes” (1880)
“The New Colossus” (1883)
33. SARAH ORNE JEWETT (1849–1909)
“A Circus at Denby” (1877)
“A White Heron” (1886)
34. MARY NOAILLES MURFREE (Charles Egbert Craddock)
(1850–1922)
“The ‘Harnt’ that Walks Chilhowee” (1884)
35. KATE CHOPIN (1850–1904)
“The Story of an Hour” (1894)
“At the ’Cadian Ball” (1894)
“The Storm” (1898)
36. MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN (1852–1930)
“A New England Nun” (1891)
“Old Woman Magoun” (1909)
“Noblesse” (1914)
37. GRACE KING (1852–1932)
“The Little Convent Girl” (1893)
38. CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860–1935)
“The Yellow Wall-paper” (1892)
“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’” (1913)
39. EDITH WHARTON (1862–1937)
“The Valley of Childish Things” (1896)
40. SUI SIN FAR (Edith Maude Eaton) (1865–1914)
“The Inferior Woman” (1912)
41. MARY AUSTIN (1868–1934)
“The Walking Woman” (1907)
“Frustrate” (1912)
42. WILLA CATHER (1873–1947)
“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” (1905)
43. AMY LOWELL (1874–1925)
“The Sisters” (1925)
44. GERTRUDE STEIN (1874–1946)
“Miss Furr and Miss Skeene” (1922)
45. ALICE MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON (1875–1935)
“A Carnival Jangle” (1895)
46. ZITKALA-ŠA (1876–1938)
“A Warrior Daughter” (1902)
47. SUSAN GLASPELL (1876–1948)
“A Jury of Her Peers” (1917)
48. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER (1879–1958)
“The Bedquilt” (1906)
49. ANNE SPENCER (1882–1975)
“White Things” (1923)
“Letter to My Sister” (1927)
50. ELINOR WYLIE (1885–1928)
“Wild Peaches” (1921)
“Anti-feminist Song, for My Sister” (1929)
51. ANZIA YEZIERSKA (ca. 1885–1970)
“Wild Winter Love” (1927)
52. HILDA DOOLITTLE (H.D.) (1886–1961)
“Oread” (1915)
“Eurydice” (1917)
53. MARIANNE MOORE (1887–1972)
“Silence” (1924)
“Poetry” (1935)
54. KATHERINE ANNE PORTER (1890–1980)
“The Circus” (1944)
55. ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891–1960)
“Sweat” (1926)
56. EDNA ST.VINCENT MILLAY (1892–1950)
“First Fig” (1920)
“Second Fig”(1920)
“What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” (1923)
57. MARIA CRISTINA MENA (1893–1965)
“The Vine-Leaf” (1914)
58. DOROTHY PARKER (1893–1967)
“Big Blonde” (1929)
59. GENEVIEVE TAGGARD (1894–1948)
“Everyday Alchemy” (1922)
60. LOUISE BOGAN (1897–1970)
“Women” (1923)
“Evening in the Sanitarium” (1941)
“Several Voices out of a Cloud” (1941)
61. MERIDEL LE SUEUR (1900–1996)
“Annunciation” (1935)
62. TESS SLESINGER (1905–1945)
“Missus Flinders” (1932)
63. ANN PETRY (1908–1997)
“The Migraine Workers” (1967)
64. ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911–1979)
“One Art” (1976)
65. JEAN STAFFORD (1915–1979)
“The Echo and the Nemesis” (1950)
66. JAMES TIPTREE, JR. (Alice Bradley Sheldon) (1915–1987)
“The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” (1969)
67. SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916–1965)
“The Lottery” (1948)
68. GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917–2000)
“The Rise of Maud Martha” (1955)
“The Bean Eaters”(1960)
“We Real Cool” (1960)
69. HISAYE YAMAMOTO (1921–)
“Seventeen Syllables” (1949)
70. FLANNERY O’CONNOR (1925–1964)
“Revelation” (1964)
71. ANNE SEXTON (1928–1974)
“Her Kind” (1960)
“Housewife” (1962)
72. CYNTHIA OZICK (1928–)
“We are the Crazy Lady and Other Feisty Feminist
Fables” (1972)
73. URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929–)
“She Unnames Them” (1985)
74. ADRIENNE RICH (1929–)
“Power” (1978)
75. SYLVIA PLATH (1932–1963)
“Stings” (1962)
“Wintering”(1962)
76. ANNIE PROULX (1935–)
“55 Miles to the Gas Pump” (2000)
77. JOYCE CAROL OATES (1938–)
“Golden Gloves” (1985)
78. MAXINE HONG KINGSTON (1940–)
“On Discovery” (1980)
79. AMY TAN (1952–)
“Two Kinds” (1989)
80. JHUMPA LAHIRI (1967–)
“A Temporary Matter” (1998)
Acknowledgments
"Remarkable . . . . A Jury of Her Peers does an enormous service, houses a drop-dead reading list, and gives the reader a fluid framework"- Los Angels Times
"Exhilarating, provocative, revelatory, magisterial... The celebrated get their due…and so do the forgotten."- Slate
For centuries women have been marginalized and overlooked in American literary history. That injustice is corrected in this entertaining and provocative collection of 350 years of poetry and fiction by American women.
From Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet to Margaret Fuller to Harriet Beecher Stowe, readers will encounter scores of lesser-known and forgotten writers who fully deserve to be rediscovered and enjoyed by new generations. Our famous women writers, including contemporary stars like Annie Proux and Jhumpa Lahiri, are showcased in their full literary context, offering an epic overview of the canon in one monumental, dazzling volume.
This landmark anthology features the best work of our best American women, and was inspired and informed by the author's groundbreaking history celebrating women writers, A Jury of Her Peers.
Introduction: The Mother of Us All
1. ANNE BRADSTREET (ca.1612–1672)
“The Prologue” (1650)
“The Author to Her Book” (1650)
“In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659” (1678)
“Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July
10th, 1666” (1667)
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” (1678)
2. MARY ROWLANDSON (1637–1711)
A Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary
Rowlandson (1682)
3. JUDITH SARGENT MURRAY (1751–1820)
“Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of
Self-Complacency, especially in Female Bosoms” (1784)
Lines from “On the Equality of the Sexes” (1790)
4. PHILLIS WHEATLEY (ca. 1753–1784)
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773)
5. SUSANNAH HASWELL ROWSON (1762–1824)
From Charlotte Temple (1791):
Chapter VI: An Intriguing Teacher
Chapter XVIII: Reflections
6. CATHERINE MARIA SEDGWICK (1789–1867)
“Cacoethes Scribendi” (1830)
7. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY (1791–1865)
“Indian Names” (1849)
“Requests for Writing” from Letters of Life (1866)
8. CAROLINE KIRKLAND (1801–1864)
Chapter XXVIII, from A New Home—Who’ll Follow? (1839)
9. LYDIA MARIA CHILD (1802–1880)
“The Church in the Wilderness” (1828)
10. MARGARET FULLER (1810–1850)
From “Autobiographical Sketch” (1852)
11. FRANCES SARGENT LOCKE OSGOOD (1811–1850)
“He Bade Me Be Happy”(1849)
“Ah! Woman Still” (1850)
12. FRANCES MIRIAM BERRY WHICHER (1811–1852)
“The Widow Essays Poetry” from The Widow Bedott Papers,
(1856)
13. “FANNY FERN” (Sara Payson Willis Parton) (1811–1872)
Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom (1853)
14. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811–1896)
“The Village Do–Nothing” from Oldtown Folks, (1869)
15. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS (1815–1852)
“The Angel Over the Right Shoulder, or, The Beginning of
a New Year” (1852)
16. LOUISA AMELIA SMITH CLAPPE (1819–1906)
Letter 19, from The Shirley Letters from the California Mines,
1851–1852, (1922)
17. JULIA WARD HOWE (1819–1910)
“The Heart’s Astronomy” from Passion-Flowers (1853)
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862)
18. ALICE CARY (1820–1871)
“The Bridal Veil” (1866)
19. ELIZABETH DREW STODDARD (1823–1902)
“The Poet’s Secret” (1860)
“Before the Mirror”(1860)
20. PHOEBE CARY (1824–1871)
“Jacob”(1886)
“When Lovely Woman” (1886)
21. LUCY LARCOM (1824–1893)
“A Loyal Woman’s No” (1863)
“Weaving” (1869)
22. FRANCES E.W. HARPER (1825–1911)
“Aunt Chloe” (1872)
“Aunt Chloe’s Politics” (1872)
“Learning to Read” (1872)
“The Triumph of Freedom—A Dream” (1860)
23. ROSE TERRY COOKE (1827–1892)
“Bluebeard’s Closet” (1861)
“Arachne” (1881)
“Odd Miss Todd” (1882)
24. EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886)
138: “To fight aloud, is very brave -”
269:“Wild nights – Wild nights!”
339: “I like a look of Agony,”
25. HELEN HUNT JACKSON (1830–1885)
“The Prince’s Little Sweetheart” (1885)
26. REBECCA HARDING DAVIS (1831–1910)
“Marcia” (1876)
27. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832–1888)
“My Contraband” (1863)
“Transcendental Wild Oats” (1873)
28. HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD (1835–1921)
“Circumstance” (1860)
29. SARAH PIATT (1836–1919)
“The Palace-Burner” (1872)
“A New Thanksgiving” (1910)
30. CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON (1840–1894)
“Miss Grief” (1880)
“Rodham the Keeper” (1880)
31. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD (1844–1911)
“The Tenth of January” (1868)
32. EMMA LAZARUS (1849–1887)
“Echoes” (1880)
“The New Colossus” (1883)
33. SARAH ORNE JEWETT (1849–1909)
“A Circus at Denby” (1877)
“A White Heron” (1886)
34. MARY NOAILLES MURFREE (Charles Egbert Craddock)
(1850–1922)
“The ‘Harnt’ that Walks Chilhowee” (1884)
35. KATE CHOPIN (1850–1904)
“The Story of an Hour” (1894)
“At the ’Cadian Ball” (1894)
“The Storm” (1898)
36. MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN (1852–1930)
“A New England Nun” (1891)
“Old Woman Magoun” (1909)
“Noblesse” (1914)
37. GRACE KING (1852–1932)
“The Little Convent Girl” (1893)
38. CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860–1935)
“The Yellow Wall-paper” (1892)
“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’” (1913)
39. EDITH WHARTON (1862–1937)
“The Valley of Childish Things” (1896)
40. SUI SIN FAR (Edith Maude Eaton) (1865–1914)
“The Inferior Woman” (1912)
41. MARY AUSTIN (1868–1934)
“The Walking Woman” (1907)
“Frustrate” (1912)
42. WILLA CATHER (1873–1947)
“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” (1905)
43. AMY LOWELL (1874–1925)
“The Sisters” (1925)
44. GERTRUDE STEIN (1874–1946)
“Miss Furr and Miss Skeene” (1922)
45. ALICE MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON (1875–1935)
“A Carnival Jangle” (1895)
46. ZITKALA-ŠA (1876–1938)
“A Warrior Daughter” (1902)
47. SUSAN GLASPELL (1876–1948)
“A Jury of Her Peers” (1917)
48. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER (1879–1958)
“The Bedquilt” (1906)
49. ANNE SPENCER (1882–1975)
“White Things” (1923)
“Letter to My Sister” (1927)
50. ELINOR WYLIE (1885–1928)
“Wild Peaches” (1921)
“Anti-feminist Song, for My Sister” (1929)
51. ANZIA YEZIERSKA (ca. 1885–1970)
“Wild Winter Love” (1927)
52. HILDA DOOLITTLE (H.D.) (1886–1961)
“Oread” (1915)
“Eurydice” (1917)
53. MARIANNE MOORE (1887–1972)
“Silence” (1924)
“Poetry” (1935)
54. KATHERINE ANNE PORTER (1890–1980)
“The Circus” (1944)
55. ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891–1960)
“Sweat” (1926)
56. EDNA ST.VINCENT MILLAY (1892–1950)
“First Fig” (1920)
“Second Fig”(1920)
“What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” (1923)
57. MARIA CRISTINA MENA (1893–1965)
“The Vine-Leaf” (1914)
58. DOROTHY PARKER (1893–1967)
“Big Blonde” (1929)
59. GENEVIEVE TAGGARD (1894–1948)
“Everyday Alchemy” (1922)
60. LOUISE BOGAN (1897–1970)
“Women” (1923)
“Evening in the Sanitarium” (1941)
“Several Voices out of a Cloud” (1941)
61. MERIDEL LE SUEUR (1900–1996)
“Annunciation” (1935)
62. TESS SLESINGER (1905–1945)
“Missus Flinders” (1932)
63. ANN PETRY (1908–1997)
“The Migraine Workers” (1967)
64. ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911–1979)
“One Art” (1976)
65. JEAN STAFFORD (1915–1979)
“The Echo and the Nemesis” (1950)
66. JAMES TIPTREE, JR. (Alice Bradley Sheldon) (1915–1987)
“The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” (1969)
67. SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916–1965)
“The Lottery” (1948)
68. GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917–2000)
“The Rise of Maud Martha” (1955)
“The Bean Eaters”(1960)
“We Real Cool” (1960)
69. HISAYE YAMAMOTO (1921–)
“Seventeen Syllables” (1949)
70. FLANNERY O’CONNOR (1925–1964)
“Revelation” (1964)
71. ANNE SEXTON (1928–1974)
“Her Kind” (1960)
“Housewife” (1962)
72. CYNTHIA OZICK (1928–)
“We are the Crazy Lady and Other Feisty Feminist
Fables” (1972)
73. URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929–)
“She Unnames Them” (1985)
74. ADRIENNE RICH (1929–)
“Power” (1978)
75. SYLVIA PLATH (1932–1963)
“Stings” (1962)
“Wintering”(1962)
76. ANNIE PROULX (1935–)
“55 Miles to the Gas Pump” (2000)
77. JOYCE CAROL OATES (1938–)
“Golden Gloves” (1985)
78. MAXINE HONG KINGSTON (1940–)
“On Discovery” (1980)
79. AMY TAN (1952–)
“Two Kinds” (1989)
80. JHUMPA LAHIRI (1967–)
“A Temporary Matter” (1998)
Acknowledgments
"Remarkable . . . . A Jury of Her Peers does an enormous service, houses a drop-dead reading list, and gives the reader a fluid framework"- Los Angels Times
"Exhilarating, provocative, revelatory, magisterial... The celebrated get their due…and so do the forgotten."- Slate
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