There are a number of anthologies of nineteenth-century American women poets in print, but these tend to offer a very small sample of poems from a very large number of writers, often based around a specific topical concern. The Toby anthology, compiled and edited by Professor Shira Wolosky, will instead present a substantial number of texts by a select group of poets - focusing in depth on the major voices of that time. This anthology will thus allow the reader the opportunity to engage more deeply with the poetry; to see the range within each poet's writings, and the relation among the poets. An introductory essay will identify central concerns, historical backgrounds, evolving patterns and poetic issues, as marked through the course of the century. The work of these poets provides a gripping view of the creativity of nineteenth-century American women that has been until recently almost entirely lost to literary history. Supremely relevant to today's readers, this is poetry that began the efforts at the redefinition of self, of America, and of womanhood that continues to touch the lives and thoughts of so many today.
The poets are: Lydia Sigourney, Julia Ward Howe, Francis Harper, Helen Hunt Jackson, Emily Dickinson, Alice & Phoebe Carey, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Emma Lazarus and Charlotte Gilman.
About the Editor
Shira Wolosky is Professor of English and American Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her publications include Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War, Language Mysticism, The Art of Poetry, and Poetry and Public Discourse, part of The Cambridge History of American Literature (forthcoming). Professor Wolosky was a Guggenheim fellow 2000.
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