A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx

What: Jury of Her Peers-American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, by Elaine Showalter, 2009 This literary history, organized chronologically over 350 years of American women's literature, makes distinctions, selections, and judgments over this often overlooked segment of American history. The title is based on the 1917 short story by Susan Glaspell called, "A Jury of Her Peers". The theme of Susan Glaspell's short story raises the moral question of how a patriarchal world can fairly judge a woman's value. In the case of "A Jury of Her Peers", a woman's guilt is in question; but Elaine Showalter then extrapolates the theme to that of the futility of women writers being judged as writers by a patriarchal world of publishers and editors. This 500-page, very-readable history is for those who love literature--especially American literature--and even more precisely, little-known women's literature. It unfolds and reveals a rich panorama of our history. How did the author approach such a voluminous task, and what distinguishes women's literature from literature written by men? Elaine Showalter clarifies that she is not basing her distinctions or judgments on biology or any sexual differences; but, rather, on societal pressures on women over these 350 years as opposed to the pressures and roles of men. From such a broad and sometimes obscure history, the author focuses her search for women who wrote for publication as opposed to women who wrote diaries, letters, recipes, etc. She also focuses on traditional literary genres--poems, plays, and fiction as well as popular fiction, girls' books, hit plays, and satiric verses. Negotiating the task of writing as a vocation with the other daily tasks of women throughout our history is a constant challenge that runs throughout these writers' lives. And inviting us into their lives to see how they did it all was fascinating. How they all juggled their writing careers tells us something about the cultural changes constantly occurring. This author identifies the first phase in women's writing to be analogous to all cultural history at this point; "the prolonged phase of imitation of prevailing modes..."; the phase of "protest against these modes along with its corresponding advocacy of independent rights and values"; and, third, the phase of self discovery". Or more bluntly put, "feminine, feminist, and female." Whatever your reason for picking up this tome, you cannot help but be intrigued by all the authors names and want to rush to your community library. Susan Glaspell's story, "Jury of Her Peers," can be found on the Internet along with a few others. A truly grand accomplishment that is keeping literature alive and teaches us there is no end to learning.

A very fine history of the evolution of women writers from the 1600s to today. Very important for men and women to learn about the literature and background of these very talented writers. Enjoyed the book very much.

Elaine Showalter an English Literature emirita professor at Princeton University has produced a magisterial book on the history of American women authors from the colonial to the modern age. This is the first book of its kind ever written which assures Showalter a place in American Literary Criticism's Hall of Fame! This book is not only the first of its kind but is an excellent introduction to the vast scope of American women writing in the genres of fiction and poetry. Among the luminaries whose works are reviewed with fair and critical acumen by Showalter are: Anne Bradstreet: Margaret Fuller; Harriet Beecher Stowe; Edith Wharton; Willa Cather; Gertrude Stein; Elinor Wylie; Dorothy Parker; Anne Sexton; Sylvia Plath; Anne Tyler; Grace Metalious; Gwendolyn Brooks; Toni Morrison (who along with Pearl Buck is only one of two American women to be the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature): Alice Walker, Joan Didion; Elizabeth Bishop; Marianne Moore; Joan Didion and countless others. Many of these writers have been lost to the historical canon. Susan Glaspell was one of these. Her play "A Jury of Her Peers" lends itself to the title of this sine qua non work of scholarship by Showalter. One is in awe of the monumental achievement accomplished by Showalter! How could one woman read, digest and research all of these books and individuals is amazing. This book will become a classic; should be used in all collegiate courses on American Literature and should be in the library of all persons who have an interest in feminism, good writing and the American literary tradition. Excellent and essential!

I'm so glad that I got this book and I received it in a timely manner and in excellent condition.

Showalter, Elaine. "A Jury of Her Peers: American Woman Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx", Alfred A, Knopf, 2009. A Comprehensive History Amos Lassen I remember reading Elaine Showalter is a graduate course in Feminist Literary Criticism when I was working on a thesis on Gertrude Stein. I thought that she was amazing and that style of writing was crystal clear. She was then regarded as a leader in the field. Needless to say that when I heard that she was writing a book American female writers, I was excited, Here it is and it is quite a work ; she has confirmed my earlier opinion about her and has produced a book that is so needed and so well done. Showalter gives us information about the famous and the forgotten and what is even more interesting is that some of the women here has objections to being put into a category of women writers and thought of themselves just as writers. This is a literary history and to the author it is not important as to whether the writers are good or not. She is concerned with whether or not feminist themes were dealt with. The work covers more than 250 writers and Showalter shows how they were connected to each other and to the times in which they wrote. Showalter feels that the time has come to bring all of the writers into her literary heritage. She puts those that are well known and perhaps overrated into their places and she makes a case for those that have been overlooked. This, in itself, can bring about debate. The amount of research involved was undoubtedly tremendous and Showalter brilliantly shows how gender and genre came together. The scope is impressive but more impressive is Showalter's readable style. This is an ambitious study and it galvanizes as well. For one person to undertake a project this large is almost incomprehensible but Showalter has managed to do it with great style. One does not have to agree with whom Showalter chose to include but I am sure that we will all agree that she has completed a monumental job and we all must be thankful for that.