Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe - Tapa dura

" Ziegler's honest and incisive account of Howe's personal life and struggles, based on in-depth research, makes Diva Julia a remarkable read. Ziegler makes every effort to let Howe speak for herself. What makes this book a special contribution to the already extensive work on Howe is the thorough and detailed look at Howe's previously suppressed work, exposing the happy picture as a sham." -SirReadaLot.org, 3/1/04 Refreshingly, Ziegler handles close readings skillfully but is simultaneously able to meaningfully discuss the larger implications of Howe's message during difficult times, especially for women Howe's own children wrote extensively on her remarkable life of ideas and action, but no one has been so thorough or bold as Ziegler." -Publisher's Weekly A summary of the book + cover image DePauw Magazine, Spring 2004 Both Ziegler s account of Ward Howe s maddening dilemma and the content of Ward Howe s early works make for a more compelling reading than do the iconic versions of her life. Ziegler s portrayal of Howe s revisions shows them to be striking products of Victorian gender ideology and family politics. Choice, September 2004 "Valarie Ziegler's biography is a long-overdue re-examination by a distinguished historian of the voluminous manuscript materials comprising the Howe collections. It is the first truly comprehensive study of Julia Ward Howe's life based on letters and other writings deliberately submerged by earlier biographers, beginning with Howe's children. One of its most fascinating strands, in fact, is its account of the Howe children's acrimonious deliberations over the public presentation of their famous parent's lives. Engagingly written and fully documented, Ziegler's work is a benchmark for all future study of one of the 19th-century's most provocative figures." Gary Williams, Professor of English at the University of Idaho and author of Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe.--Sanford Lakoff "Remembered today as the author of the Civil War anthem "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," Julia Ward Howe over the span of a very long life enjoyed great public acclaim as writer, cultural arbiter, and social activist. In this vivid and highly readable biography, Valerie Ziegler draws upon the many books and voluminous letters, memoirs, and unpublished manuscripts of Howe, her strong-willed husband, and her prolific children to recreate the eventful-and often troubled and turbulent private life that unfolded behind the iconic public image." Paul S. Boyer, Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford Companion to United States History--Sanford Lakoff "This is a stunningly insightful account of the public and private life of one of the best-known women in nineteenth-century America. With an incisive, inquiring intelligence, Valarie Ziegler takes us beyond the carefully constructed public image of Julia Ward Howe to discover the complex, troubled, and valiant effort of one woman to accept and yet transcend the deadening conventions of her time. Ziegler combines impeccable scholarship with a lucid and engaging style that captivates and charms." -E. Brooks Holifield, Charles Howard Candler Professor, Emory University--Sanford Lakoff "Valerie Ziegler has produced a fine critical biography of Julia Ward Howe, one of the most celebrated American literary and reformist figures in the half century preceding the first world war. None of Howe's previous biographers has mined her papers, and those of her famous husband and her several very articulate children, with such determination and investigatory zeal. As a result, Ziegler has been uncommonly successful in untangling the riddles of a troubled life and family situation that her protective offspring did their best to keep from public view. We are thus indebted to Ziegler not merely for a better understanding of Howe but even more for a fresh and vivid rendering of the dilemmas that, then and now, beset women who aspire to both a private and a public life." - Dr. William Hutchison, Charles Warren Research Professor of the History of Religion in America, Harvard Divinity School--Sanford Lakoff

Best known as the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) enjoyed great public acclaim as a writer, cultural arbiter, and social activist. In this biography, Ziegler draws upon letters, memoirs, and unpublished manuscripts to reveal the private struggle Howe endured