Shady Ladies: Nineteen Surprising and Rebellious American Women

First Line: "So," I've been asked repeatedly, "what *is* a shady lady?" Shady Ladies is a series of light and breezy biographies of nineteen 19th century American women who weren't content with the norm. The biographies range from the familiar--Margaret "the Unsinkable Molly" Brown-- to the more obscure, and Ledbetter has done an excellent job in finding women who will whet our appetites for more. My favorites? Sara Parton, who left an abusive husband to become a successful novelist under the pen name of Fanny Fern. Sara Knight Borginnis Bowman, who "stood at least six-two in her stockinged feet and tipped a feed scale at better than two hundred exceedingly top-heavy pounds" and had a tendency to discard husbands whenever she felt like it. Sara rose from camp follower to the proprietor of a "full service hotel" for soldiers during the war with Mexico. Frances Benjamin Johnston, who was a photojournalist fifty years before they had a name for her profession. And Lydia Pinkham, who made a fortune with her Vegetable compound. (Before you laugh, how many other elixirs first marketed in 1875 can still be purchased today on Internet drugstore sites?) Ledbetter clears up misconceptions concerning the more well-known figures, and brings others to life who had been long buried in the sands of time. I love reading about anyone who bucks the trend, and the author provides a bibliography for further reading, which is always a plus. If you're in the mood for a fast-paced, fascinating account of women who didn't like the status quo, Shady Ladies is the book for you.

Some of the interesting ladies you meet in this volume are not necessarily the ladies you'd really like to meet in person. 'The Unsinkable' Molly Brown's husband creatd the 'unsinkable' term when he said, 'she's too mean to sink.' These stories of nineteen women tell of women in a time when women's rights were much fewer than they are now. Many of these women lived lives a bit strange by our standards. Divorce wasn't common, so some of them simply killed their husbands - note plural. Some of them took on roles in the business world, quite successful, or they wouldn't be listed in this book. All in all, these mini-biographies are quite interesting. They run about a dozen pages each and while they don't have the space to go into great depth, they introduce us to a set of women who lives their lives far outside the norm. All in all, it'w quite an interesting set of stories.