Muse of the Revolution

In their landmark book on extraordinary women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony hailed Founding Mother Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) for advocating not only "the freedom of man alone, but . . . that of her own sex also." In this meticulously researched biography of the first female historian of the American Revolution and our first woman playwright, Nancy Rubin Stuart depicts Mrs. Warren's life and patriotic achievements. The sister of firebrand James "the Patriot" Otis, who first declared that "taxation without representation is tyranny," the highly educated Mercy Otis Warren was the mother of five sons and the wife of James Warren, Speaker of the Massachusetts House and paymaster general of the Continental Army. In 1775 patriotic Mrs. Warren served as her husband's private secretary at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety and the Provincial Congress, where she heard news about the Revolution that few men--and virtually no women--enjoyed. Mercy Otis Warren was a close friend of both John and Abigail Adams; she and Abigail shared their fears, comforted each other in their husbands' absences, exchanged theories about child-rearing, and even ran a small importing business together. John Adams, who was impressed with Mrs. Warren's acumen and literary abilities, praised her "real genius" and encouraged her to write satirical plays, poems, and a history of the American Revolution. After reading her three-volume History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution (1805), however, Adams exploded. In one of ten blistering letters, he accused her of having a "determined resolution" to denigrate his role in the Revolution. This eye-opening biography reveals their complex relationship--and why it unraveled. The Muse of the Revolution captures Mrs. Warren's bold interactions with other notables of American history, among them Sam Adams, Henry Knox, Benjamin Lincoln, Hannah Winthrop, Elbridge Gerry, and George and Martha Washington. Mrs. Warren satirized both British and American Loyalists in her popular plays and poems and authored an influential critique of the U.S. Constitution whose principles were later incorporated into the Bill of Rights. Nancy Rubin Stuart reveals how Mrs. Warren's provocative writing made her an exception among the largely voiceless women of the eighteenth century, and she persuasively argues for Mercy's legacy to be appreciated by a new generation. "When John Adams observed that 'History is not the province of the ladies,' he had in mind his former protege, the accomplished and prolific Mercy Otis Warren. Here Nancy Rubin Stuart restores Mrs.Warren to vibrant life, offering up a vivid picture of colonial America, and incidentally proving John Adams twice wrong." --Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff and author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America "At last! A full biography of Mercy Otis Warren--poet, playwright, pamphleteer, scholar, agitator for liberty! Nancy Rubin Stuart's feminist re-telling of America's ‘founding fathers' in revolution and nation-building is a wonderful corrective. This deeply researched, vigorously written portrait of the woman who chronicled the Revolution, improved the US constitution, campaigned for the Bill of Rights, and confronted her competitive, even malicious, male-controlled world with frequent success is stunning. Filled with surprises and important insights, both historical and contemporary, everybody concerned about our past, and our future, will want to read and gift this book." --Blanche Weisen Cook, University Distinguished Professor, CUNY, and author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume 1 and 11Stuart, Nancy Rubin is the author of 'Muse of the Revolution', published 2008 under ISBN 9780807055168 and ISBN 0807055166.