A Review of The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill by Marcia Biederman

Posted on January 25, 2024 by Theresa

“The experts said a woman couldn’t have done it alone, and they were right. The family had done it together, as they’d always done things. They’d jointly made a mess of it. All their efforts at concealment were undone in a moment. It might have been comical if it hadn’t been criminal.”

So opens Marcia Biederman’s new book, The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill, out from Chicago Review Press this week. It is a page-turning historical true crime drama set in nineteenth-century New England that follows the lives of Nancy and Henry Guilford, husband-and-wife medical specialists in “complaints peculiar to females.” Women of that time knew exactly what those peculiar complaints referred to: unwanted pregnancies. And the Guilfords knew how to help them.

After describing how the evidence of a gruesome crime had been uncovered in 1898 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Marcia Biederman pulls the story back, building suspense through a careful construction of Nancy and Henry’s activities, showing how and why they became engaged in the abortion trade when most states had outlawed the practice. The tension increases as Marcia weaves in the stories of the desperate patients who sought their services. It’s an intriguing look at a small slice of reproductive history that speaks volumes about women’s ongoing struggles to retain control of their own bodies.

I’ve known Marcia Biederman for a few years through an online group of authors who write women’s biographies. (And very recently we met for the first time in real life in New York City.) Her last book, A Mighty Force, chronicled the efforts of Dr. Elizabeth Hayes to bring quality medical care and healthy living conditions to Pennsylvania coal miners in the 1940s.

Marcia has a keen eye for unusual tales about women who have fallen off history’s radar. Returning their stories to the larger historical narrative is a goal we share, and I was delighted when I was asked to provide a blurb for The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill. It will keep you riveted from start to finish.

https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/the-disquieting-death-of-emma-gill-products-9781641608565.php?page_id=30

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/marcia-biederman/the-disquieting-death-of-emma-gill/

Welcome 2024! (What I’ve got coming up.)

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Theresa

I look forward to the beginning of each new year so I can round up and reflect on the reading I’ve done over the preceding year. Pulling together my own “favorites” lists of fiction and nonfiction will take me a bit longer than usual because I’ve got a big thing happening starting next week.

I’ll be in New York City (for the first time ever) to complete a Short-Term Research Fellowship at the New York Public Library. For two weeks I get to comb through the records of The New Yorker magazine, which was co-founded in 1925 by Jane Grant, the subject of my next biography. I’m thrilled and honored to receive this support from the NYPL.

(Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Nothing remotely like what I’ll be doing in New York.)

(Library of Congress photo. Where I’ll actually spend most of my time.)

This will be the second major research trip for my new book project, which is tentatively titled The Jazz-Age Feminism of Jane Grant. Back in October, I traveled to the University of Oregon to research Grant’s papers, housed in the archives of the Knight Library.

I started to write a blog post about that experience, which turned into quite a different piece that’s still unfinished but not abandoned. So, after I post my 2023 reading lists in late January, I’ll polish the unfinished piece and get that up, then, in time for Women’s History Month, there will be a couple of articles about these research trips and an update on the status of my book project.

Until then, here’s a link to a post I wrote for Shepherd, a reading recommendation site, about my three favorite novels that I read before October 2023. It’ll give you a sneak peek at what will be in my full list.

https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/theresa-kaminski

And here’s the link to the list of the 2023-2024 recipients of the Short-Term Research Fellowships at the New York Public Library:

https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/fellowships-institutes/short-term-fellowship-recipients

I hope everyone finds joy in 2024!

Historical Novel Review: The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann by Virginia Pye

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Theresa

I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy via NetGalley of Virginia Pye’s new novel, which will be out from Regal House in October. I have followed Virginia on social media for several years now, and I really enjoyed her other two historicals, Dreams of the Red Phoenix and River of Dust, novels that feature American missionaries in China.

The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann is quite different yet equally satisfying and rich in historical context. Victoria Swann, who lives in Boston during the Gilded Age, is the author of a series of popular novels that feature adventurous heroines in exotic places. Her husband and her editor both keep a close eye on her career, always encouraging her to write more.

But Victoria grows increasingly unhappy with the stories they push her to write. She longs to produce works of literary value, stories that reflect the ways in which women really experience life. After completing the first such manuscript, her editor puts it away in a drawer, unwilling to give it even a cursory read. Her husband rails against her lack of business sense, and their marriage begins to unravel.

When Victoria is assigned a new editor at the publishing house, she sees a chance to push forward with her literary liberation. What follows is a unique kind of adventure story of how a determined woman takes control of her life in a time (and place) when almost everything works against her.

Two things I especially liked about this novel: the fine characterization of Victoria Swann and the ways in which Virginia Pye’s narrative gently echoes Gilded Age women writers. If she is a new-to-you author, I would encourage you to read any of her already-published books while you await the release of The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann.

You can pre-order a copy of the book here: https://regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com/the-literary-undoing-of-victoria-swann/

My Favorite Nonfiction of 2022

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Theresa

My 2022 list (nonfiction books I read but were not necessarily published in 2022) is made up of an even dozen titles. All of them are about women, and all but one were written by women. This is not unusual for my reading preferences. What is unusual is the number of memoirs included. What is not unusual about the memoirs that made my list? Most of the authors focus on aspects of their writing lives.

So here they are, roughly in the order that I adore/admire them.

The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an America Family by Kerri K. Greenidge. An eye-opening account of the Grimke sisters, white women from South Carolina, who became outspoken advocates for abolition. Greenidge uses her expert historical skills to show the limits of the women’s understanding of and support for racial equality as they acknowledge their Black nephews, a side of the family that flourished after the Civil War. It’s a marvelous family biography wrapped around essential racial and gender history.

My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland. A luminous mixture of memoir and biography. I didn’t know much about McCullers going into this book and found Shapland’s approach to writing about the famous author innovative and intriguing.

Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun. Another unusual memoir, this one intertwined with the biographies of poet O’Hara and of Calhoun’s father, the art critic Peter Schjeldahl. A great story of a complicated father-daughter relationship.

Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontes by Devoney Looser. Jane and Maria Porter were bestselling novelists in England with a literary fame that spread around the world. Looser revives their reputations via a narrative as enthralling as anything Jane Austen wrote.

The Ruin of all Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill. Gaskill brings to life the realities of eking out a living in the early Massachusetts Bay Colony and the power of Puritan beliefs in witchcraft to upend the precarious lives of the settlers. The story of Hugh and Mary Parsons is bone-chilling.

I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour. About as moody and atmospheric as Gaskill’s book, this literary biography delves into Rhys’s Caribbean background and its influence on her writing.

To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Phyllis Joyner by Carol Emberton. Historian Emberton uses the life of Joyner, born in North Carolina shortly before the Civil War, to explore how formerly enslaved people experienced the (sometimes limited) freedom of emancipation. This is a great example of how the life of an ordinary, “unknown” person can illuminate key periods in American history.

Inventing the It Girl: How Elinor Glyn Created the Modern Romance and Conquered Early Hollywood by Hilary Hallett. If you want to know anything about the evolution of the modern early twentieth-century woman, this is the book to read. Glyn started writing scandalous novels to make up for her husband gambling away most of the family fortune. And she ended up in Hollywood!

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous. This memoir of a real-life author and Twitter personality is a surprisingly touching and sometimes funny work about dealing with grief and depression. I don’t know who Duchess Goldblatt is, but that really, really doesn’t matter.

Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals by Laurie Zaleski. I picked this up on whim at the library, expecting that it would mostly be about rescuing animals. There’s some of that, but it’s woven around Zaleski’s tale of her rocky childhood and it all blends together in a very pleasing way.

Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maude Newton. In this multi-generational story, Newton tracks down the truth behind the tales told by and about various family members over the years. It’s an eye-opening account of the power of genealogy.

Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay by Shanna Greene Benjamin. A fabulous exploration of the public and private lives of McKay, a writer and literary scholar who helped create the academic field of African American literature.

What do you think? Have you read any of these? What are you looking forward to in 2023?

My Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2021 (and an announcement)

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Theresa

My preference for nonfiction continues to be driven by my academic training as a historian (with a specialization in American women’s history). I gravitate toward serious narrative nonfiction written by women about women–and I’m especially interested if those female subjects are not well-known historical figures. My nine top nonfiction books of 2021 (read in that year, but not necessarily published in it) reflected that. All nine were by women about women, including two memoirs. As a bonus, because I hate to present fewer than ten, I also included two others that I liked very much.

These four were especially wonderful:

Rebecca Donner, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler. The unforgettable, haunting story of Milwaukee native Mildred Harnack.

Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake. A National Book Award winner.

Julie Flavell, The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain’s Wars for America. Provides a much-needed, different perspective on conventional military and political history.

Martha S. Jones, Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All. An insightful and incisive reminder of the limitations of the Nineteenth Amendment.

This book went back to the roots of the women’s rights movement:

Dorothy Wickenden, The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights.

Two books that will keep you on the edge of your seats:

Catherine Prendergast, The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle That Shook America.

Judy Batalion, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos.

Two thought-provoking memoirs:

Rebecca Carroll, Surviving the White Gaze.

Jacqueline Winspear, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing.

Also not to be missed, especially because they recover important people and events largely forgotten:

Scott Borchert, Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America.

Marcia Biederman, A Mighty Force: Dr. Elizabeth Hayes and Her War for Public Health.

Now, for my announcement!

My latest book, Queen of the West: The Life and Times of Dale Evans, is due out in April. To encourage you all to think about reading the book (and recommending it to your friends, family, mail carrier, etc., and maybe even pre-ordering it), I will be launching Queen of the West Wednesdays on February 2. Every Wednesday, I will post the opening sentence of a chapter (or chapters–I’ve got to fit them all in by mid-April!) and explain just a little bit of what was happening in Dale’s life.

So pull on your favorite boots over these next Wednesdays and join me!

Theresa Kaminski

Tag Archives: book reviews