Kirjahaku

Oregon's Abigail Scott Duniway was the Northwest's most influential advocate for women's rights, whose two newspapers, the New Northwest and the Pacific Empire, rallied suffragists in the late nineteenth century.Duniway originally published Edna and John serially in the New Northwest in 1876 and 1877. It is presented here in book form for the first time. The story of a married couple, Edna and John Smith, who move to southern Idaho in the 1860s during the gold mining frenzy, this atypical western underscores women's struggles in an era when social and legal codes empowered only men. Abigail Scott Duniway was a luminary in the fight for women's rights, and her serialized novels played a significant role in the enfranchisement of women in the West. Even today Edna and John serves to encourage readers to challenge injustice and sexual inequality, and to appreciate the courage and determination of the pioneer suffragists.Edna and John is an enticing western tale that reads well for its adventure, its convincing re-creation of the way life really was in much of the West, and its humanistic appeal.Editor Debra Shein reveals the "story behind the story" in her insightful addenda to the book, and provides an expanded panorama of the life and times of Abigail Scott Duniway.

Tenacious advocate for women's rights Abigail Scott Duniway offers her life story, describing the intense, decades-long struggle to attain voting rights for American women.Although the author recalls her own upbringing and ascendance to a position of leadership in the Women's Suffrage movement of the late 19th century, she is emphatically clear almost from the start that this nationwide goal was a team effort consisting of many talented people, male and female alike. Portraits and anecdotes of these figures, many of whom are now obscured by time, are present that readers may appreciate how rallying support behind votes for women was the combined work of many.Abigail describes having to doggedly persist against numerous stumbling blocks and personal difficulties; the notion of women voting was then a topic of great controversy, and she found herself shunned and sidelined for her campaigns. Although her state of residence, Oregon, had a generally progressive outlook and culture, it took many years of sustained protest and pressure to make votes for women a serious reform for consideration. Finally in 1912, Oregon approved an amendment for women's suffrage - Abigail Scott Duniway, by that time elderly, was present when Governor Oswald West signed the amendment into law.