What Katy Did - A Recognition of Feminism from Randall House Rare Books
What Katy (and thousands of others) did.
By Michael Stillman
This month we review one of the most extensive catalogues on a subject we have seen: What Katy Did. A Recognition of Feminism in the American Experience. This is an exceptional catalogue, long in the making, long in the offerings. Randall House Rare Books has come up with over one thousand items, all pertaining to or written by women. They aren't necessarily "feminist," though many pertain to the long struggles for women's rights. What you will find here are many famous and important women, as writers or subjects. They range from the 1960's and 70's New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, known for fighting for women's and others' rights (and for her large hats), to Babe Didrickson Zaharias, the marvelous woman athlete from the first half of the 20th century, an all around competitor whose biggest mark was made in golf. Here are just a few of the very many items Randall House has put together.
Item 971 ties together two remarkable women fighters for abolition: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sojourner Truth. Stowe was the novelist whose Uncle Tom's Cabin brought the horrors of slavery front and center for all to see in the decade before the Civil War. Truth was a campaigner for freedom, a woman born into slavery in upstate New York (in 1793, slavery still existed in the North) who, despite being uneducated and illiterate, became a major speaker for abolition. Offered is the April 1863 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, containing Stowe's tribute to Truth, Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl. Priced at $100.
Hannah Duston was an early fighter for freedom - her own - and the Indians rued the day they messed with her. Hannah and her family were living in rural Haverhill, Massachusetts, when a group of Indians came calling with unfriendly intentions. Most of the family escaped, but Hannah, her nurse, and her few week old baby were captured and forced to march north. When the baby slowed them down, one of the Indians took it and smashed its head against a tree. Hannah would get her revenge. Hannah, her nurse, and a 14-year-old boy captured earlier were sent with a group of 12 Indians to continue the arduous journey through snow and mud to Canada. One night, they camped on an island in New Hampshire. The Indians (only two of whom were men, the rest being women and children) got a bit careless and went to sleep with no guard. Hannah and the boy grabbed the Indians' tomahawks. With spectacular efficiency, Hannah killed nine of them, the boy one, and one Indian woman and child escaped. Hannah and her companions set down the river in a canoe when she realized no one would believe their story. She quickly reversed course, scalped the Indians, and returned with the evidence (which was also needed for her to secure a reward). Hannah's story was first written up by Cotton Mather, of all people, in 1702. Item 273 is Heroism of Hannah Duston... by Robert B. Caverly, published in 1874. Hannah was a hero in her hometown for centuries, but her story makes us a bit more squeamish today. $100.
|
What Katy Did - A Recognition of Feminism from Randall House Rare Books
Helen Keller writes about the death of Anne Sullivan.
Here is another woman who could swing a mean tomahawk, or at least, a mean ax. Well... maybe that's not fair. She was acquitted. Item 99 is The Fall River Tragedy. A History of the Borden Murders, by Edwin H. Porter, published in 1893. On a summer morning in 1892, Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were discovered in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home, victims of a brutal murder. Though many suspected her of the murder, the jury concluded there was insufficient evidence that Lizzie had given her mother 40 whacks, or her father 41. While there had been problems in the family, and much reason to suspect Miss Borden, there was never the clear piece of evidence to connect her, though no one else was suspected. Randall House proclaims "she was about as innocent as O.J. Simpson." Lizzie never found the real killer either. The first edition of Porter's book is offered together with the 1985 limited edition facsimile reprint. $1,500.
Item 112 is a biography of a woman who was something of a precursor to Helen Keller: Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman. The Deaf, Dumb and Blind Girl. We don't know whether Laura played a mean pinball, but she managed to learn to read by touch and become educated in numerous subjects. At one point, Charles Dickens visited and wrote about Miss Bridgman. It was Dickens' account which would later lead to Helen Keller's mother contacting the Perkins School for the Blind, where Bridgman lived, and hiring a teacher from that school (Anne Sullivan) to work with her daughter. The author of this 1878 book, Mary Swift Lamson, was one of Miss Bridgman's teachers at Perkins. $125.
Item 531 is a letter from the remarkable Miss Keller, dated November 24, 1936. The letter was written less than a month after the death of her teacher and "miracle worker," Anne Sullivan. The now 56-year-old Keller writes, "...it is winter in my life since the guardian angel of fifty years no longer walks by my side on earth." $1,500.
Item 102 is One Special Summer, a journal of a 1951 trip to Europe by Jacqueline and Lee Bouvier. It was originally written by the two young women as a thanks to their mother for allowing them to take this trip alone. However, by the time it was published in 1974, Jacqueline had grown up to be the wife of a president and now a wealthy Greek shipping magnate, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, while Lee had married Price Radziwill, who was Prince of... I really have no idea what he was prince of. This is one of 500 copies signed by both sisters. $1,000.
Randall House Rare Books may be reached at 805-963-1909 or Pia@RandallHouseRareBooks.com. The website is www.RandallHouseRareBooks.com.
|