Martin Naparsteck

Following a public argument with her friend Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony altered her strategy of seeking a broad range of rights for women and blacks and focused exclusively on winning the vote for women. Defying state and federal law, she voted in the presidential election of 1872, and was arrested and tried in a case presided over by a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ward Hunt, who directed the jury to deliver a guilty verdict. Fined $100, Anthony defiantly told the judge she would never pay--and never did. This is the story of the landmark trial that attracted worldwide attention and made Anthony into the iconic leader of the women's rights movement.

This is the first book-length biography of Olivia Langdon Clemens, Mark Twain's wife. Livy was an intelligent, well-educated woman of Victorian values and sensibilities who lived a charmed and tragic life. Raised in the wealthiest family in Elmira, New York, she married the man destined to become the best known American in the world. She befriended the literary elite of America and Europe, traveled the globe, dined with royalty. Yet her life was filled with tragedy. Her son was born prematurely and died at 19 months. Her oldest daughter died of spinal meningitis at 24. Her youngest daughter was an epileptic. Her husband's bad investments drove the family into bankruptcy. Her frail health kept her bedridden for years at a time. Yet through all this, she and her husband shared a family life filled with love and tenderness.

Many factors--political, economic, sociological--contributed to the United States' westward expansion across the continent. But the role that sex played has largely been unexplored by scholars. This is the first book-length study to examine such topics as Thomas Jefferson's interest in the sex lives of American Indians, white's fear of Indians raping white women, Christian missionary beliefs that Native American sexual practices needed to be altered in order to save Indian souls, and the desire of Mormons to practice polygamy. These and other sex-related dynamics all combined to play a role in America's extension from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Richard Yates has been referred to as America's least known great writer. Today Yates is known primarily for the novel Revolutionary Road, considered by many critics as the greatest American novel of the second half of the twentieth century. This critical study examines the life and work of Yates by placing his body of work in both cultural and personal context. Topics covered include the writing of his major novels, homosexuality, his role as a critic, and his relationship with Hollywood. This text divulges new details about his life and offers a thorough analysis of unpublished materials from the Richard Yates archives at Boston University.