Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-354) and index.

In the troubled times before the Civil War, Lydia Maria Child's impassioned antislavery writings attracted more people to the abolition movement than any other published works. Deborah Clifford here paints a vivid portrait of Child and the social milieu in which she worked. In 1825, Child captivated Boston's literary world with her first novel, "Hobomok", which took on the unmentionable subject of a white woman's marriage to an American Indian. Her career was launched, and after her marriage to David Child she became the family breadwinner. When she and David joined the abolitionists, however, the literary world turned against her, and for the rest of her life Child struggled for her causes while trying to make ends meet. Lydia Maria Child was one of the most influential women of the nineteenth century, yet she defies categorization. In this biography, Clifford brings Child and her famous friends -- including William Lloyd Garrison, Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William Ellery Channing -- to life. -- From publisher's description.

SACFinal081324