Fiction, Poetry, and Drama: Audacious Writings by American Women, 1830-1930

297 Pages·2021·3.072 MB·English

by  Meredith Stabel (editor)

RADICALS

R A D I CA LS
Audacious Writings by
American Women,
1830–1930
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QW
Volume One
Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
Edited by
Meredith Stabel and Zachary Turpin
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242
Copyright © 2021 by the University of Iowa Press
Foreword copyright © 2021 by Roxane Gay
isbn 978-1-60938-766-2 (pbk)
isbn 978-1-60938-767-9 (ebk)
www.uipress.uiowa.edu
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Kathleen Lynch / Black Kat Design
Text design by April Leidig
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any
means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable
steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material
used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable
arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach.
Printed on acid-f ree paper
Cataloging-in-Publication data is
on file with the Library of Congress.
For my parents, who made everything possible—MS
For my wife, who wins the bet—ZT
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Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Foreword by Roxane Gay xv
Introduction by Meredith Stabel and
Zachary Turpin xix
A Note on the Text xxix
Kate Chopin
The Storm (1898) 1
An Egyptian Cigarette (1900) 6
Rebecca Harding Davis
At Noon (1887) 11
Emily Dickinson
For each extatic instant (ca. 1859) 17
Come slowly – Eden! (ca. 1860–61) 18
He fumbles at your Soul (ca. 1862) 18
He touched me, so I live to know (ca. 1862) 18
Alice Dunbar- Nelson
If I Had Known (1895) 22
The Praline Woman (1899) 22
I Sit and Sew (1918) 24
Sui Sin Far
A Chinese Ishmael (1899) 28
A Chinese Boy- Girl (1904) 35
Fanny Fern
From Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale
of the Present Time (1855) 42
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When I Was a Witch (1910) 50
The Socialist and the Suffragist (1910) 59
From Herland (1915) 60
Angelina Weld Grimké
El Beso (1923) 83
The Want of You (1923) 84
The Black Finger (1923) 84
At April (1925) 84
Trees (1928) 85
Frances E. W. Harper
Bible Defense of Slavery (1855) 88
Eliza Harris (1855) 88
Only one night beneath your roof (1859) 90
Bury Me in a Free Land (1870) 91
Learning to Read (1891) 92
A Double Standard (1895) 94
Pauline Hopkins
Talma Gordon (1900) 97
From Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self (1902) 112
Converting Fanny (1916) 125
Julia Ward Howe
From The Hermaphrodite (ca. 1846–47) 130
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Smothered Fires (1918) 137
Foredoom (1918) 138
My Little Dreams (1918) 138
Maternity (1922) 138
Utopia (1922) 139
Credo (1922) 139
Fusion (1922) 139
When I Rise Up (1922) 140
Amelia E. Johnson
From Clarence and Corinne; or, God’s Way (1890) 142
Maggie Pogue Johnson
I Wish I Was a Grown Up Man (1910) 149
Old Maid’s Soliloquy (1910) 150
Emma Lazarus
Carmela (1875) 154
Dolores (1876) 157
Assurance (ca. 1880) 158
Adah Isaacs Menken
Judith (1868) 162
Myself (1868) 164
Genius (1868) 166
Drifts That Bar My Door (1868) 169
Miserimus (1868) 172
Ann Plato
Advice to Young Ladies (1841) 175
The Natives of America (1841) 176
To the First of August (1841) 178