My favorite book collection (I have several) features books by and about nineteenth-century American women. It began innocently enough six years ago as I started looking for books by Ann S. Stephens, a popular and prolific author, whose works are the subject of my dissertation. In the course of looking for Stephens' fiction, I came across works by other nineteenth-century American authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and E. D. E. N. Southworth (after all many bookstores organize their wares in
semi- (chaotic) alphabetical order). Who could resist titles such as Changed Brides or Tried for Her Life?

Although I would like to collect as many first editions as possible, two major considerations prevent this: 1. money - I am a graduate student (need I say more?); and, 2. practicality - nineteenth-century American women are the subject of my research as well as my book collection. Rare books are not for underlining and marginalia, and no matter how famous I may become as a scholar of nineteenth-century American women's writing, I doubt that my marginalia would increase the price of a book in the way that, say, Coleridge's did. So, I try to get modern reprints of those works that are available. If I need to study works from my collection in careful detail, I make photocopies and use them for close study.

Whenever I go to major cities, I haunt the used bookstores to see if I can find goodies to add to my collection. I attend the local Antiquarian Book Sale whenever possible, and I have recently added to my collection via the Internet. Family and friends are aware of my passion and have generously contributed to my collection. Although my collection is still small, 42 volumes, it is growing. Any of Stephens' works tops my list of wants. I feel fortunate that I now own nine of her novels. I would love to own one of her dime novels, in any nineteenth-century format, but those are well beyond my price range. I was surprised to discover, in assembling this bibliography, that this collection contains 10 first editions. But my interests are eclectic - as long as a book is by or about nineteenth-century women, I am captivated.

One aspect of my dissertation is analyzing Stephens' rhetoric to examine how she attempted to identify with her readers, who were primarily women. Therefore, a familiarity with various forms of expression used by nineteenth-century women authors is an important aspect of my research, so both fiction and nonfiction contribute to my knowledge. The fiction allows me to make comparisons - in themes and tropes, as well as uses of rhetoric - between her works and those of others. The nonfiction works demonstrate issues that some women deemed significant and thus provide additional contextual information. I know that I will continue to build this collection for the rest of my life, if for no other reason than self-defense - my husband collects and restores antique tractors!

Fiction

Allen, Samantha (Marietta Holley) established her name as a humorist through over 20 books published under the pseudonym "Josiah Allen's Wife". These books use the downeaster, Yankee dialect to deliver critiques of American society in a humorous fashion. Stephens may have been the first woman to use this format in her extremely popular High Life in New York (1843), an epistolary novel recounting the misadventures of Jonathan Slick, a country-farmer-turned-journalist in the big city.

---. My Wayward Pardner: or My Trials with Josiah, America, the Widow Bump, and Etcetery. Hartford, CT: American Publishing, 1881.
First edition. This volume contains wonderful illustrations which add to the humor of the escapades related in the book. Holley's protofeminism is strongly revealed in chapters such as "The Lords of Creation."

---. Samantha at Saratoga. Chicago: Thompson and Thomas, 1887.
It is difficult to tell if this book is a reprint or not because I do not have enough information about the publication history of Holley's works, but it may be a first edition. It features illustrations by a Mr. Opper, who was apparently best known for his "Puck" illustrations. This book is one of several in a series of books about the Allens at famous places and events, e.g., Samantha at the World's Fair.

Clay, Bertha M. is a pseudonym applied to many different writers who cranked out cheap novels based on formulaic plots for a very small fee.

---. A Willful Maid. New York: International Book, n.d.
This volume is a library discard, purchased at a library sale. Naturally, this means it is in rather poor condition. It is printed on cheap pulp paper and probably dates from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

--- (Charlotte M. Braeme). A Woman's Error. Chicago: Donohue, n.d.
Donohue apparently specialized in women's novels at the turn of the century, publishing reprints of older books.

Cummins, Maria. Her career as an author of sentimental women's novels was cut short by her early death at age 39.

---. The Lamplighter. 1854. Chicago: Donohue, n.d.
This novel was an immediate best-seller both at home and abroad and may have been the basis for Hawthorne's now infamous invective against that "d---d mob of scribbling women." It is another story of the abandoned young girl who finds happiness through Christian virtue.

Glenwood, Ida, [The Blind Bard of Michigan] was a young blind woman who felt impelled to write her novel by the voice/spirit of God.

---. The Fatal Secret. Philadelphia: Potter, 1873.
First edition. I have not been able to learn any more about the author, nor have I had the opportunity to read this novel yet.

Holmes, Mary J. was another popular and prolific author of sentimental tales writing at the same time as Stephens.

---. The English Orphans. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, n.d.
Although this volume is in poor shape, it is the only one in my collection by Holmes and came to me via the friend of my sister. It is still readable and thus serves a purpose.

Parton, Sara Willis [Fanny Fern] achieved financial security and fame, as well as infamy, with the publication of her semi-autobiographical style. Fern was also a newspaper journalist who wrote regular columns for the New York Ledger.

---. Ruth Hall. New York: Mason, 1855. First edition.
This book is probably my best bargain, I only paid nine dollars for it. One of the more interesting aspects of this novel is Fern's creative use of voice, contrasting the sentimental with the voice of realism which exposes the illusion of the supposedly safe sentimental world of women in nineteenth-century society.

Southworth, E[mma] Dorothy] E[liza] N[evitte] was another prolific and popular author, who wrote over 60 novels between 1849 and her death in 1899. Stephens has been compared to her, both in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They probably knew each other, as they both had the same publisher, T. B. Peterson.

---. The Bride's Dowry. Choice Fiction Library. Chicago: Donohue, n.d.
This book dates from the late teens to early twenties. Printed on poor quality pulp paper, books in the series sold for 50 cents for the cloth cover version. This is an example of the cheapest of the "cheap books" published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

---. Capitola's Peril. New York: Donohue, n.d.
Capitola, the swashbuckling heroine of The Hidden Hand, the only Southworth novel to be reprinted in our own time, was the subject of many of Southworth's novels, probably in part, because Capitola's name sold well.

---. Changed Brides. Mrs. Southworth Series. New York: Hurst, n. d.
This is one of those republished books from the 1910s, as can be ascertained by the style of dress of the woman on the cover illustration. It was printed from the same stereoplates, as the book listed below, thus saving thousands of dollars in costs, allowing the publishers to sell them at a low price. Perhaps the publisher issued the Mrs. Southworth Series after acquiring and stereotyping a number of her works.

---. Changed Brides. New York: Hurst. n. d.
This copy, by the same publisher as the copy listed above, is probably an older edition.

---. Cruel as the Grave. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, n.d.
This book probably dates from the late 1890's or early twentieth century. This book is the first in a serial. Frequently, to boost sales, authors and/or publishers would arrange to have a continuation of a story in another volume. This book is part of a uniform series of Southworth's works.

---. Ishmael, or In the Depths. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, n.d.
This was one of Southworth's most popular novels, and one she considered her "very best work" (Preface iii). Unlike most of her fiction, this narrative features a male protagonist. Ishmael is the self-made man, who overcomes poverty and other obstacles to become a successful man. Another from a uniform edition of Southworth's works.

---. Self-Raised, or "From the Depths. " 1876. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, n.d. (c. 1904).
The date for this book comes from the frontispiece illustration. It is the sequel to Ishmael and achieved equal popularity. That it was reprinted in the heyday of Horatio Alger stories is not surprising, poor boy makes good was a popular theme at the turn of the century.

---. To His Fate. New York: A. L. Burt, n.d.
A. L. Burt may have been one of the first publishers to buy publishing rights to books originally published by T. B. Peterson, as they also published many of Stephens' works in the 1890s. They are the only republisher of the works I own by Southworth to note that some other company held the copyrights, in this case Robert Bonner.

---. Tried for Her Life. Chicago: Donohue, n.d.
This is the sequel to Cruel as the Grave. This particular book probably dates from the 1910s and is another example of "cheap books," as they called them, printed on pulp paper and inexpensively cloth bound.

Stone, May E. I have no information on this author, except what appears on the title page, indicating she has written more than six novels.

---. A Fair Plebeian. Hammock Series. Chicago: Henry A, Sumner. 1883.
First edition. Apparently the Hammock Series refers to recent popular fiction, according to the advertising information in the back leaves of the book.

Stephens, Ann S. Although she is best known today as the author of the fist Beadle dime novel, Malaeska (1860), Stephens was much better known in her own day for her middle-class women's novels. In the course of her 52 year career (1834-1886) she published over 23 full length novels, 7 dime novels, and innumerable poems, essays, short stories, and fictional serials. She also edited six different journals and was well known among the New York Literati, where her inclusion by Poe attests to her strength as a writer. Like most women authors of the nineteenth century, she was not cold in the grave before she was being buried critically. Even in the twentieth century Stephens has been criticized for "clinging women" who must depend upon men. But, having read over half her opus at this time, I feel that such criticism is unwarranted. Stephens is by no means a protofeminist, but she believed that women should be allowed to utilize their God-given talents without societal restraint. Her position is much more conservative than Fern or Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, but, as such, she represents a more moderate (and, hence, perhaps more widespread) stance on issues facing women in the nineteenth century.

---. David Hunt. 1845. New York: F. M. Lupton, 1892.
The rights to this story, published posthumously, were probably also acquired after Stephens' death. It appears to be part of a uniform edition. The story centers on a man wrongly charged with murder and melodramatically climaxes, when, as it appears all hope of justice will be denied, the "dead" man walks into the courtroom. This same tale, with only minor changes such as the names of characters, was lifted almost verbatim and put into The Wife's Secret (1864), which may explain why it was not republished during Stephens' lifetime after she became a well-known author.

---. Doubly False. 1868. New York: F. M. Lupton, n.d.
This volume was probably also published after Stephens' death because, after 1863, T. B. Peterson was Stephens' publisher until her death in 1986. It is also part of a uniform edition. I just recently acquired this book and have not yet had a chance to read it, but I suspect it is one of her novels which critiques the high life of fashion and foppery.

---. Fashion and Famine. New York: Bunce, 1854. 25th Thousand. First edition; probably fifth printing.
This novel was a best-seller in 1854, selling over 50,000 copies, and established Stephens as a major author. It is unusual for its time in featuring a fallen woman as the protagonist. It addresses many social problems including the plight of working women, the imprisonment of mothers with young children, gambling, and women's property rights.

---. The Lady Mary. F. M. Lupton, 1892.
This volume also appears to be part of a Lupton uniform edition. I have not yet settled the puzzle of the story, which centers on the tragic life of a lady-in-waiting of Anne Boleyn. As a shorter narrative, I suspect that, it, like David Hunt, may have been incorporated into some longer novel.

---. Malaeska: Indian Wife of the White Hunter. 1860. With an Introduction by Frank P. O'Brien. New York: John Day, 1929.
This is one of my prized possessions. Although it is not a first edition of the first dime novel, this first twentieth century reprint is autographed by Frank P. O'Brien (1930), who is primarily responsible for the 1929 edition. Malaeska details the devastating effects of racism upon the eponymous heroine and those she loves. It was originally a three-part serial, written in 1839 for Ladies Companion. The changes in the plot for the longer dime novel version are directly related to changing ideologies regarding Native Americans. This novel, in both versions, will be the subject of a chapter in my dissertation, which will examine representations of Native Americans in Stephens' fiction.

---. Mary Derwent: A Tale of the Wyoming Valley in 1778. 1858. A. L. Burt, n.d.
This volume probably dates from the early twentieth century. This story also first appeared as a serial in Ladies Companion, in 1838. It is a melodrama based on an historical event, the Wyoming massacre in 1778. This novel is unusual in featuring a disabled young woman as the protagonist. The inscriptions of Native Americans is much more racist than those in Malaeska. Like Malaeska, the plot of Mary Derwent undergoes more than just expansion for the book publication, it changes according to current beliefs about Native Americans. Rhetorical analysis of Mary Derwent will be the major substance of another chapter in my dissertation.

---. The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals. 1873. New York: Federal Book, n.d.
This volume is probably from the early twentieth century. It is printed on poor quality pulp paper and bound in a cheap cloth cover. It attempts to demonstrate a preference for American values of freedom and republicanism over the riches of the ancient titles of England.

---. The Old Homestead.- A Story of New England Farm Life. 1855. New York: F. M. Lupton, n.d.
This volume may be one of the first published by Lupton. It has a wonderful photograph of Stephens as the frontispiece. This novel, to my knowledge the first that Stephens wrote as a full-length novel without incorporating other short stories or first presenting it in serialized form, was her second best-seller. It is a story of Christian redemption featuring a diminutive and plain heroine with inner, spiritual beauty. This novel, like Fashion and Famine, exposes many social ills, including the treatment of the insane, the orphaned, and the imprisoned. It pits the degradation of city life against the healthful atmosphere of the country. Stephens was among the first American authors to exploit this theme.

---. Ruby Gray's Strategy. 1869. New York: F. M. Lupton, n.d.
This volume appear to be another in a uniform series by Lupton. This society novel stresses the idea that women without scruples never win in the important matters of life.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. An overnight sensation with publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe went on to write a number of other novels as well as a great deal of nonfiction; in this she resembles Stephens who also wrote a prodigious amount of nonfiction. Although they both incorporate similar themes in terms of women's place in society, Stowe was much more interested in creating carefully composed literature, whereas Stephens appears to have been more concerned with telling a good story.

---. Oldtown Folks. Mrs. Stowe's Novels. Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1869. First edition.
This book is also a volume in the uniform edition of Stowe's works published by Fields. This story is somewhat different than many of Stowe's novels in that it has a male narrator who attempts to be an objective reporter. Stowe's use of the male voice offers comparisons to Stephens' use of the device in High Life in New York.

---. Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1878. First edition.
This story, like some of Stephens!, is based on the place of the childhood home and commingles with her own memories of the area and its cultural practices. The last of Stowe's novels, it is a nostalgic look back at her New England girlhood.

Warner, Susan (Elizabeth Wetherell). Although Susan Warner initially published under the pseudonym, Elizabeth Wetherell, her popularity allowed her to drop the pretense. Her novels are highly sentimental with strong Christian themes.

---. Wide, Wide World. 1851. New York: Lippincott, 1888.
This novel was Susan Warner's first and biggest seller and was reprinted over and over again, well into the twentieth century. It recounts the tale of a motherless girl who learns, through hardship, the value of Christian forbearance.

Wilson, Augusta J. Evans was a novelist from the South whose political and religious beliefs are embedded in some of her novels. She wrote eight major novels between 1855 and 1907, but chronic illness prevented her from much writing in her later years; however, her royalty income made such work superfluous.

---. Beulah. 1859. New York: A. L. Burt, n.d.
Beulah was Evans' first popular success. It is the semi-autobiographical tale of a woman beset with religious doubt, caused in part from her readings in the philosophy of Carlyle, Emerson, and Kant. This republished edition probably dates from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

---. Inez: A Tale of the Alamo. 1855. New York: G. W. Carleton, 1873.
Inez is Evans' first novel, which she began writing at the age of fifteen. It is the melodramatic tale of a group of emigrants caught in the middle of the Texas War of Independence. Evans' anti-Catholicism is prevalent. Based on the copyright, it appears that Evans changed publishers after she became an established author. This volume is more handsomely bound, with gold embossing and cost $1.75 when new, so is more collectible than the Burt reprints.

---. St. Elmo. 1866. New York: A. L. Burt, n.d.
St. Elmo was Wilson's most popular work. It recounts the life of a young orphaned girl who pursues knowledge through an ambitious reading program and who saves her lover from a life of sin by refusing his advances until he reforms. This book was republished and/or reprinted for many, many years after the original publication. This particular volume dates from the turn of the century.

Nonfiction:

Ellet, Elizabeth F. The Women of the American Revolution. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Scribner's, 1856.
This work by the noted historian, Ellet, is among the first of a spate of biographical tributes to women of the past that flooded the market by the latter part of the nineteenth century. In this volume she pays tribute to many of the women, long since forgotten, who played important roles in the fight for independence. Like historians of our own time, she notes that women's contributions are not found in the public records and must be sought from "private sources" (x).

Gordon, Anna A. The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard. Memorial edition. Chicago: WCTU, 1898.
First edition. This adulatory biography, written by Willard's personal secretary of over 20 years, focuses on Willard's contributions to the Christian world, primarily through her work as president of the largest organization of women in America to that time the Women's Christian Temperance Union. It also contains memorials offered in Willard's name at the time of her death.

Hanaford, Phebe A. Daughters of America; or Women of the Century. 2nd ed. Augusta, ME:
True & Co., n.d.. (c. 1883)
This expanded edition contains short biographical sketches of important nineteenth
century American women, including Ann Stephens.

Knight, Helen C. Mrs. Lady Huntington and Her Friends,; or, The Revival of the Work of God in the Days of Wesley, Whitefteld, Romaine, Venn, and Others. New York: American Tract Society, 1853.
First edition. Considering the huge volume of publications by the American Tract Society in the nineteenth century, no collection of books by and about women from that period would be complete without at least one example. Although this is entitled as a biography, it is primarily a tract preaching salvation through Jesus Christ.

Melendy, Mary R., M. D., Ph. D. Perfect Womanhood. n.p.: K. T. Boland, 1901.
Although this book technically does not meet the date parameters of this collection, it is imbued with nineteenth century sensibilities, arid it is the only medical text I own about women in this time period. It is fascinating reading: it contains numerous drawings of the female sexual organs, but not even a hint of the male's. It dispenses, with great authority, incorrect information regarding when conception occurs, and, like its predecessors, places responsibility for happiness in marriage almost completely on the woman.

Morris, Charles. The Life of Queen Victoria and the Story of Her Reign. n.p.: W. E. Scull, 1901.
Although this book also fall outside the date parameters, it belongs in this collections for
two reasons. First, a collection of books on nineteenth-century women needs to have
something about the woman for whom the entire last half of the century was named. Second, and more important to me, this book was given by my great-grandmother to my great aunt, who, despite the lack of a complete education and a battle with poverty for most of her life, was a feminist in her own right. She followed the exploits of women who broke new barriers with keen interest as her scrapbooks clearly demonstrate.

Mowatt, Anna Cora. Autobiography of an Actress; or Eight Years on the Stage. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854.
First edition, 15th thousand. Although I have not yet read this book, I am interested to see how Mowatt constructs her life when she has so obviously strayed beyond the private sphere, to the public platform of the stage.

Willard, Frances E. How To Win: A Book for Girls. 4th ed. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1887.
This conduct manual for girls differs from most written in the nineteenth century: it advocates that women develop their talents and use them in career, rather than waiting around for "Prince Charming," who may die or desert, leaving women to support themselves. Willard stresses that all women need to learn to be independent and self reliant. This was the first book I used to analyze women's rhetoric and thus moved me closer toward the dissertation.

Yonge, Charlotte M. Womankind. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1878.
This conduct manual follows the more traditional stance, placing women at the center of the home, the private sphere, and charging them with the responsibility of creating a happy life for all under their care. Interestingly, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Yonge coined the word "homemaker" in this book, calling it the "most essential of all duties of womankind," while she claimed that "[m]en can seldom, if ever, make a home by themselves" (264).