Myra MacPherson

Being an account of the lives of the eponymous sisters, Tennessee Claflin and Victoria Woodhull, concentrating on their years of great celebrity in post-Civil War America as they brought their wit, beauty, and charisma to bear in bringing to America their heady philosophy, a mix of feminism, libertinism, spiritualism, and an unfamiliar twist on Christianity. Several very good biographies on the sisters, especially Woodhull, have been published over the years, but this new entry passes the "why?" test quite handily, given the author's fluency with words, attention to historical detail, and, especially, expanded attention to the sisters' relatively sedate but not uninteresting later years abroad. The book is marred by a clunker of an epilogue in which the author takes us on an opinionated survey of the current state of women's rights in the United States; perhaps most readers of a book of this sort will be sympathetic to her opinions, but many of these issues are at best tangential to anything the sisters concerned themselves with, and calls into question authorial historical objectivity. MacPherson is well-enough known that she could more easily have aired her views in lectures, interviews, and articles without burdening a fine visit to another world in another time with a partisan pep talk.… (meer)

A biography of Victoria Woodhull and her less well known sister, Tennesse Claflin. Woodhul was the first female Presidential candidate, running in 1872 with Frederick Douglas as her running mate. The sisters opened a Wall Street brokerage house (the first run by women), fought for the vote for women, advocated sexual equality and ending government interference in marriage. Macpherson covers the high and low points of their careers, from their early work as spiritualists and con artists to speaking before Congress; from their financial ruin thanks to continued legal attacks, the Women's Movement of the time rejecting them, and the hostility of Anthony Comstock. Colliding with and tarnishing Henry Ward Beecher, the two sisters fled to England, only to land rich husbands. Even then, the sisters (especially Lady Cook, nee Tennesse Claflin) continued to fight for women's suffrage and rights. Macpherson notes the sisters' failures, and Victoria's tendency to pugnacity causing great difficulties; but she also observes that Woodhull's claim to be a hundred years ahead of her time was actually far too optimistic, and that many of the issues the two battled against are still problems today for intelligent, ambitious women. Since Tennessee has been neglected in prior histories of Victoria, this book tries to correct that error and give credit where it is due. Well worth reading.… (meer)