Woman's Rights Tracts.
Stone, Lucy, editor. Woman’s Rights Tracts... N.p., [1856].
16mo.; brown cloth, stamped in gilt; covers worn; inner hinges starting, tender; discrete library stickers on the cover and the front pastedown (deaccessioned from the Merriam Public Library in West Brookfield).
Second edition, printing a new preface by Stone; preceded by an earlier edition, little circulated, which contained no foreword: “At the time when this little volume was compiled the subject of Women’s Rights was greatly misunderstood...These speeches set forth clearly the meaning and scope of the movement. In my eagerness to get them before the public, I forgot to add the date of publication. But it was probably in 1853 or 1854” (from the Preface). Prints five separately paginated speeches on behalf of women’s suffrage: “Freedom for Women” by Wendell Phillips (p. 21); “Public Function of Women” by Rev. Theodore Parker (p. 24); “Enfranchisement of Women” by Mrs. John Stuart Mill (p. 28); “Woman and Her Wishes” by Rev. T.W. Higginson (p. 32); and “Responsibilities of Women” by Mrs. C.I.H. Nichols (p. 18).
According to Stone, these diverse and complementary speeches were distributed as a political tool: “I then compiled [this] little book...I took them to my Women’s Rights meetings. The sale of them helped to pay for halls, advertising, etc. That was before there were any Women’s Rights Societies, when there were few to ‘lend a hand.’” (from the Preface).
This copy bears corrections and emendations, in pencil and in ink; these notes, together with the book’s generally used condition, suggest that this copy was well-read by suffrage supporters and library users.
(#10769)
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