The Vintage Book of American Women Writers

The Vintage Book of American Women Writers is the first of its kind: a dazzling, monumental showcase of 350 years of poetry and fiction by American women.

Inspired and informed by her groundbreaking history A Jury of Her Peers, Elaine Showalter’s landmark anthology features the best work of writers ranging from Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet to contemporary stars like Annie Proulx and Jhumpa Lahiri.

For centuries women have been marginalized and overlooked in American literary history and Showalter’s collection corrects this injustice, allowing us to see our famous women writers in their full literary context and to encounter scores of lesser-known and forgotten writers who fully deserve to be rediscovered and enjoyed by new generations of readers.

Women don't figure in literary history because they have not been the ones to write it, we're told, but Showalter's anthology gives us a historical chronology of women writers in context, belonging to as well as affecting traditions.

Today, we have many good, great, and popular women writers. Most of them are left out of this anthology since this book displays writers such as Anne Bradstreet, Lydia Maria Child, Kate Chopin, and Willa Cather who paved the way.

Sure to fuel debate for years to come, The Vintage Book of American Women Writers offers an epic overview of the canon in one readable, entertaining, and provocative volume.

Introduction:  The Mother of Us All
 
1. ANNE BRADSTREET (ca.1612–1672)
            “The Prologue” (1650)
            “The Author to Her Book” (1650)
            “In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659” (1678)
            “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 
               10th, 1666” (1667)
            “To My Dear and Loving Husband” (1678)
 
2. MARY ROWLANDSON (1637–1711)
            A Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary 
               Rowlandson (1682)
 
3. JUDITH SARGENT MURRAY (1751–1820)
            “Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of 
               Self-Complacency, especially in Female Bosoms” (1784)
            Lines from “On the Equality of the Sexes” (1790)
 
4. PHILLIS WHEATLEY (ca. 1753–1784)
               “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773)
 
5. SUSANNAH HASWELL ROWSON (1762–1824)
      From Charlotte Temple (1791):
               Chapter VI: An Intriguing Teacher
               Chapter XVIII: Reflections
 
6. CATHERINE MARIA SEDGWICK (1789–1867)
              “Cacoethes Scribendi” (1830)
 
7. LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY (1791–1865)
            “Indian Names” (1849)
            “Requests for Writing” from Letters of Life (1866)
 
8. CAROLINE KIRKLAND (1801–1864)
            Chapter XXVIII, from A New Home—Who’ll Follow? (1839)
 
9. LYDIA MARIA CHILD (1802–1880)
            “The Church in the Wilderness” (1828)
 
10. MARGARET FULLER (1810–1850)
            From “Autobiographical Sketch” (1852)
 
11. FRANCES SARGENT LOCKE OSGOOD (1811–1850)
            “He Bade Me Be Happy”(1849)
            “Ah! Woman Still” (1850)
 
12. FRANCES MIRIAM BERRY WHICHER (1811–1852)
            “The Widow Essays Poetry” from The Widow Bedott Papers, 
               (1856)
 
13. “FANNY FERN” (Sara Payson Willis Parton) (1811–1872)
            Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom (1853)
 
14. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811–1896)
            “The Village Do–Nothing” from Oldtown Folks, (1869)
 
15. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS (1815–1852)
            “The Angel Over the Right Shoulder, or, The Beginning of 
               a New Year” (1852)
 
16. LOUISA AMELIA SMITH CLAPPE (1819–1906)
            Letter 19, from The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 
               1851–1852, (1922)
 
17. JULIA WARD HOWE (1819–1910)
            “The Heart’s Astronomy” from Passion-Flowers (1853)
            “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862)
 
18. ALICE CARY (1820–1871)
            “The Bridal Veil” (1866)
 
19. ELIZABETH DREW STODDARD (1823–1902)
            “The Poet’s Secret” (1860)
            “Before the Mirror”(1860)
 
20. PHOEBE CARY (1824–1871)
            “Jacob”(1886)
            “When Lovely Woman” (1886)
 
21. LUCY LARCOM (1824–1893)
            “A Loyal Woman’s No” (1863)
            “Weaving” (1869)
 
22. FRANCES E.W. HARPER (1825–1911)
            “Aunt Chloe” (1872)
            “Aunt Chloe’s Politics” (1872)
            “Learning to Read” (1872)
            “The Triumph of Freedom—A Dream” (1860)
 
23. ROSE TERRY COOKE (1827–1892)
            “Bluebeard’s Closet” (1861)
            “Arachne” (1881)
            “Odd Miss Todd” (1882)
 
24. EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886)
            138: “To fight aloud, is very brave -”
            269:“Wild nights – Wild nights!”
            339: “I like a look of Agony,”
 
25. HELEN HUNT JACKSON (1830–1885)
            “The Prince’s Little Sweetheart” (1885)
 
26. REBECCA HARDING DAVIS (1831–1910)
            “Marcia” (1876)
 
27. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832–1888)
            “My Contraband” (1863)
            “Transcendental Wild Oats” (1873)
 
28. HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD (1835–1921)
            “Circumstance” (1860)
 
29. SARAH PIATT (1836–1919)
            “The Palace-Burner” (1872)
            “A New Thanksgiving” (1910)
 
30. CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON (1840–1894)
            “Miss Grief” (1880)
            “Rodham the Keeper” (1880)
 
31. ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD (1844–1911)
            “The Tenth of January” (1868)
 
32. EMMA LAZARUS (1849–1887)
            “Echoes” (1880)
            “The New Colossus” (1883)
 
33. SARAH ORNE JEWETT (1849–1909)
            “A Circus at Denby” (1877)
            “A White Heron” (1886)
 
34. MARY NOAILLES MURFREE (Charles Egbert Craddock) 
        (1850–1922)
            “The ‘Harnt’ that Walks Chilhowee” (1884)
 
35. KATE CHOPIN (1850–1904)
            “The Story of an Hour” (1894)
            “At the ’Cadian Ball” (1894)
            “The Storm” (1898)
 
36. MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN (1852–1930)
            “A New England Nun” (1891)
            “Old Woman Magoun” (1909)
            “Noblesse” (1914)
 
37. GRACE KING (1852–1932)
            “The Little Convent Girl” (1893)
 
38. CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860–1935)
            “The Yellow Wall-paper” (1892)
            “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’” (1913)
 
39. EDITH WHARTON (1862–1937)
            “The Valley of Childish Things” (1896)
 
40. SUI SIN FAR (Edith Maude Eaton) (1865–1914)
            “The Inferior Woman” (1912)
 
41. MARY AUSTIN (1868–1934)
            “The Walking Woman” (1907)
            “Frustrate” (1912)
 
42. WILLA CATHER (1873–1947)
            “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” (1905)
 
43. AMY LOWELL (1874–1925)
            “The Sisters” (1925)
 
44. GERTRUDE STEIN (1874–1946)
            “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene” (1922)
 
45. ALICE MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON (1875–1935)
            “A Carnival Jangle” (1895)
 
46. ZITKALA-ŠA (1876–1938)
            “A Warrior Daughter” (1902)
 
47. SUSAN GLASPELL (1876–1948)
            “A Jury of Her Peers” (1917)
 
48. DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER (1879–1958)
            “The Bedquilt” (1906)
 
49. ANNE SPENCER (1882–1975)
            “White Things” (1923)
            “Letter to My Sister” (1927)
 
50. ELINOR WYLIE (1885–1928)
            “Wild Peaches” (1921)
            “Anti-feminist Song, for My Sister” (1929)
 
51. ANZIA YEZIERSKA (ca. 1885–1970)
            “Wild Winter Love” (1927)
 
52. HILDA DOOLITTLE (H.D.) (1886–1961)
            “Oread” (1915)
            “Eurydice” (1917)
 
53. MARIANNE MOORE (1887–1972)
            “Silence” (1924)
            “Poetry” (1935)
 
54. KATHERINE ANNE PORTER (1890–1980)
            “The Circus” (1944)
 
55. ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891–1960)
            “Sweat” (1926)
 
56. EDNA ST.VINCENT MILLAY (1892–1950)
            “First Fig” (1920)
            “Second Fig”(1920)
            “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” (1923)
 
57. MARIA CRISTINA MENA (1893–1965)
            “The Vine-Leaf” (1914)
 
58. DOROTHY PARKER (1893–1967)
            “Big Blonde” (1929)
 
59. GENEVIEVE TAGGARD (1894–1948)
            “Everyday Alchemy” (1922)
 
60. LOUISE BOGAN (1897–1970)
            “Women” (1923)
            “Evening in the Sanitarium” (1941)
            “Several Voices out of a Cloud” (1941)
 
61. MERIDEL LE SUEUR (1900–1996)
            “Annunciation” (1935)
 
62. TESS SLESINGER (1905–1945)
            “Missus Flinders” (1932)
 
63. ANN PETRY (1908–1997)
            “The Migraine Workers” (1967)
 
64. ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911–1979)
            “One Art” (1976)
 
65. JEAN STAFFORD (1915–1979)
            “The Echo and the Nemesis” (1950)
 
66. JAMES TIPTREE, JR. (Alice Bradley Sheldon) (1915–1987)
            “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” (1969)
 
67. SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916–1965)
            “The Lottery” (1948)
 
68. GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917–2000)
            “The Rise of Maud Martha” (1955)
            “The Bean Eaters”(1960)
            “We Real Cool” (1960)
 
69. HISAYE YAMAMOTO (1921–)
            “Seventeen Syllables” (1949)
 
70. FLANNERY O’CONNOR (1925–1964)
            “Revelation” (1964)
 
71. ANNE SEXTON (1928–1974)
            “Her Kind” (1960)
            “Housewife” (1962)
 
72. CYNTHIA OZICK (1928–)
            “We are the Crazy Lady and Other Feisty Feminist 
               Fables” (1972) 
 
73. URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929–)
            “She Unnames Them” (1985)
 
74. ADRIENNE RICH (1929–)
            “Power” (1978)
 
75. SYLVIA PLATH (1932–1963)
            “Stings” (1962)
            “Wintering”(1962)
 
76. ANNIE PROULX (1935–)
            “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” (2000)
 
77. JOYCE CAROL OATES (1938–)
            “Golden Gloves” (1985)
 
78. MAXINE HONG KINGSTON (1940–)
            “On Discovery” (1980)
 
79. AMY TAN (1952–)
            “Two Kinds” (1989)
 
80. JHUMPA LAHIRI (1967–)
            “A Temporary Matter” (1998)
 
Acknowledgments
 
 

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