The Magnificent Activist: The Writings of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) - Softcover

Meyer, Howard; Meyer, Howard N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306809540 ISBN 13: 9780306809545

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2000

Synopsis

Thomas Wentworth Higginson is little known today, but during his own lifetime his remarkable activism put him at the very heart of the pivotal social movements reshaping America for the nineteenth century and beyond. Born in Cambridge, he was a fervent abolitionist, running guns to anti-slavery settlers and financing John Brown's raid. During the Civil War, he commanded the first black unit to fight for the Union, and their achievements (publicized in his classic Army Life in a Black Regiment) opened the way for further black enlistment. He also championed women's rights for sixty years, lecturing and agitating for suffrage. His lifelong correspondence with Emily Dickinson led to his editing her verse for publication, which some have called his greatest literary legacy. But in fact that legacy is here, in the essays he wrote about the many causes to which he dedicated his life. With this volume Meyer has guaranteed the rediscovery of a major American figure whose ideas made him a radical in his society but a visionary in ours.

About this title

About the Author:

Howard N. Meyer is the author of numerous articles on civil rights and peace history. Books he edited include the 1962 and 1984 editions of Higginson's Army Life in a Black Regiment and a biography of Higginson, Colonel of the Black Regiment and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. His book The Amendment That Refused to Die was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1974. He lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

Massachusetts-born Higginson was a 19th-century Renaissance man. He was an active abolitionist, a supporter of women's rights and an accomplished essayist. This collection of his essays captures Higginson's many talents and interests. "Obeying the Higher Law" offers a response to the Fugitive Slave Law. "The Fact of Sex" argues that it is precisely because men and women are fundamentally different that women need the voteAwomen "never can, and never will be, justly represented by" men. In "Negro Spirituals," Higginson gives thanks that during the Civil War, when he commanded an all-black Union regiment, he was able to learn some of the haunting melodies and arresting lyrics. "Scripture Idolatry" confronts the question of biblical authority; Higginson writes that advances in scholarship are bound to show that Scripture is not infallible, and he hopes that people's faith in God will not be shattered when the infallibility of Scripture is challenged. Several of Higginson's essays marry literary criticism with politics. In "Sappho," for example, he assesses the poet's work and also urges Americans to create a society where more women will be free to write great poetry. (Higginson was a crucial correspondent and friend of Emily Dickinson.) "The Clergy and Reform" takes ministers to task for failing to speak out against the "social evils against which we know that Christ if alive would have protested." There are dozens of similarly delightful, challenging essays in this volume; kudos to biographer and historian Meyer (The Amendment that Refused to Die) for making it possible for a wide audience of readers to once again enjoy the wit and insight of Thomas Wentworth Higginson. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0306809540
• ISBN 13: 9780306809545
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640