Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker

First full-length biography of a key figure in nineteenth-century American culture

Tempest-Tossed is the first full biography of the passionate, fascinating youngest daughter of the "Fabulous Beecher" family--one of America's most high-powered families of the nineteenth century. Older sister Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Brother Henry Ward Beecher was one of America's most influential ministers, and sister Catherine Beecher wrote pivotal works on women's rights and educational reform. And then there was Isabella Beecher Hooker--"a curiously modern nineteenth-century figure." She was a leader in the suffrage movement, and a mover and shaker in Hartford's storied Nook Farm neighborhood and salon. But there is more to the story--to Isabella's character--than that.

Isabella was an ardent Spiritualist. In daily life, she could be off-putting, perplexing, tenacious, charming. Many found her daunting to get to know and stay on comfortable terms with. Her "wild streak" was especially unfavorable in the eyes of Hartford society at the time, which valued restraint and duty. In her latest book, Susan Campbell brings her own unique blend of empathy and unbridled humor to the story of Harriet's younger half-sister. Tempest Tossed reveals Isabella's evolution from orthodox Calvinist daughter, wife, and mother, to one of the most influential players in the movement for women's suffrage, where this unforgettable woman finally gets her proper due.