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Ruth Hall and Other Writings (American Woman Writers Series)
Ruth Hall and Other Writings - American Woman Writers Series Author:Fanny Fern, Joyce W. Warren (Editor) When Ruth Hall was originally published in 1855, it caused a sensation. In it, Fanny Fern (Sara Payson Willis Parton) portrays a mid-nineteenth-century woman who realizes the American Dream solely on her own, becoming the incarnation of the American individualist--regarded at that time as a role designed exclusively for men. Based on th... more »e author's life, the novel reflects her spirit of practical feminism--that a woman was only truly independent when she was financially independent.
Fanny Fern was one of the most popular American writers of the mid-nineteenth century, the first woman newspaper columnist in the United States, and the most highly paid newspaper writer of her day. This volume gathers together for the first time almost one hundred selections of her best work as a journalist. Writing on such taboo subjects as prostitution, venereal disease, divorce, and birth control, Fern stripped the façade of convention from some of society's most sacred institutions, targeting cant and hypocrisy, pretentiousness and pomp.« less