Author, editor, and independent scholar Autumn Stanley extensively researched this first biography of nineteenth-century magazine editor and reformer Charlotte Smith.
Smith's story is quintessentially American: this daughter of Irish immigrants became a force to be reckoned with despite having only a grade-school education and supporting two children alone.
Her first periodical, the Inland Monthly, was doubly rare: edited by a woman but not a women's magazine; and a profitable venture, bringing a large sum when sold. In Washington, D.C. she gained the ear of a powerful senator and the respect of many others in Congress through her unfailing attendance at its sessions and hearings, her undercover investigations of working conditions, and, after 1882, her all-female union.
Smith became a tireless advocate for working women, women inventors, prostitutes, and the poor and unfortunate in general. Nationally famous, with frequent coverage in major newspapers, she founded her second periodical, the Working Woman, in 1886 and later in the decade her third periodical, the Woman Inventor.
All those who enjoy a good mystery, namely why this dynamic woman has been forgotten by history, as well as those who delight in seeing long overdue credit given at last, should enjoy this presentation.
Wednesday, November 18th @ 7 p.m.
