The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont - Hardcover

Jessie Fremont

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252019423 ISBN 13: 9780252019425

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1992

Synopsis

Bold, talented, and ambitious, Jessie Benton Fremont was one of Victorian America's most controversial women.
As the daughter of powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and the wife of John Charles Fremont - western explorer, presidential candidate, and Civil War general - she not only witnessed but struggled to influence many of the major events of her time. Despite the restrictions she faced as a woman, she managed to carve out a vital role for herself as a writer, dedicated abolitionist, and "secretary and other self" to her mercurial husband. She collaborated on his best-selling exploration reports, served as his behind-the-scenes political advisor and chief Civil War aide, and worked as a lobbyist for Arizona mining interests.
In The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont, Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence create a compelling portrait of this remarkable woman. They supplement their collection of 271 fully annotated letters, selected from 800 they uncovered, with an elegant introduction and seven authoritative chapter essays that elucidate the significant periods of her life.
The correspondents range from intimate friends like Elizabeth Blair Lee to public figures like Horace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, John Greenleaf Whittier, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, William T. Sherman, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Readers interested in women's studies, the westward movement, the Civil War, and the Gilded Age will find a rich source in The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This carefully edited collection of 271 letters offers insights into the heart and mind of Jessie Benton Fremont (1824-1902), a spirited and talented woman forced by society to channel her own ambitions into her husband's career. The daughter of Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, she eloped at age 17 to marry famed explorer John Fremont. In the ensuing years she lent her extraordinary charm, intellect and abilities to advancing his efforts as an explorer, politician, Civil War general and financial speculator. She also helped write his memoirs and defended him from critics. In accompanying essays, Herr ( Jesse Benton Fremont: A Biography ) and Spence ( The Explorations of John Charles Fremont ) illuminate Fremont's eloquent and touching letters, in which she lays out her fierce abolitionist stance, her love for her difficult and unreliable husband, and her decision to write a book ( A Year of American Travel , 1878 ) in order to support her children when his fortunes declined. This is an outstanding contribution to women's studies. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The favorite child of powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and the wife of the explorer, presidential candidate, and Civil War general John Fremont, Jessie Benton Fremont was one of the most renowned and controversial women of Victorian America. Bold and outspoken, yet beset by the ambivalence and conflict faced by women in a changing America, she witnessed and chronicled this period in a prolific correspondence, 271 letters of which are meticulously annotated and organized here. The editors, each of whom has written books on the Fremonts, succeed in placing the letters in context, dividing the text into seven sections that illustrate key periods in Fremont's life. Readers will find fascinating insights here into the tensions faced by a politician's wife, learning, for example, that today's much ballyhooed "Hillary factor" had a parallel in the presidential campaign of 1856, in which women actively participated. Certainly historians, but even general readers, should enjoy this collection.
- Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0252019423
• ISBN 13: 9780252019425
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 656
• Editor: Pamela Lee Herr, Mary Lee Spence