Harriet Elizabeth
(Beecher) Stowe (1811-1896)
Adams,
John R. Harriet Beecher Stowe: New York: Twayne, 1963.
Crozier,
Alice Cooper. The Novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe. New
York: Oxford, 1969. An excellent scholarly study supervised by
Perry Miller. Probably a Harvard dissertation. Literary analysis.
Ellsworth,
Mary E. "Two New England Writers: Harriet Beecher Stowe and
Mary Wilkins Freeman." Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University,
1981.
Fields,
Annie Adams. Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1897; reprinted by Gale, Detroit,
1970. A plodding Victorian story, with letters integrated into
the narrative.
Foster,
Charles Howell. The Rungless Ladder: Harriet Beecher Stowe
and New England Puritanism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University
Press, 1954. A special analysis by an academic. Thoroughly reliable.
Foster defends Stowe against charges of racism made by James
Baldwin and others.
Gerson,
Noel Bertram. Harriet Beecher Stowe, A Biography. New York:
Praeger, 1976. A 200-page work. Modest index and bibliography.
Gilbertson,
Catherine. Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Appleton-Century,
1937. Gilbertson admits she has turned up no new information but
justifies publication by saying that she has tried to write a
balanced account. "After all that was typical has been accounted
for, there remains something unique—emotional vitality, genius,
heroism—unexplained by the psychologist, that lifts her above
the crowd." (p. x) Serious but not scholarly.
Johnston,
Johanna. Runaway to Heaven: The Story of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
New York: Doubleday, 1963. A fruitless effort to explain Stowe
to the popular reading audience. After 500 pages we "see
the enigma again, not to be explained." (p.ix)
Scott,
John Anthony. Woman Against Slavery: the Story of Harriet Beecher
Stowe. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1978. Written in the context
of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, this is a sympathetic
interpretation that shows Stowe to have been a true crusader on
the black Americans' behalf.
Stowe,
Charles Edward. Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Story of Her Life.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911. Based on many family papers
and reminiscences. Do not expect objectivity, but do expect a
lot of information.
Stowe,
Lyman Beecher. Saints, Sinners, and Beechers. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1934.
Wagenknecht,
Edward Charles. Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Known and the Unknown.
New York: Oxford, 1965. This is not a traditional biography
or analysis of Stowe's work but a view of her as a product of
her familial environment—as daughter, sister, wife, and mother.
A character study but not psychobiography.
Wilson,
Robert Forrest. Crusader in Crinoline, the Life of Harriet
Beecher Stowe. New York: Lippincott Co., 1941. A mammoth study
of over 700 pages. Index and extensive list of sources. Perhaps
the best study.
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