Woman's Bible, The, Part I & II.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Woman’s Bible. Part I. Comments on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Part II. Comments on the Old and New Testaments from Joshua to Revelation. New York: The European Publishing Co., 1895 and 1898.
8vo; 152 pp. + 4 ads (Part I) and 217 pp. + 6 ads for Elizabeth Cady Stanton titles; rebound in red buckram with two gilt-edged black leather labels at spine; “The Woman’s Bible” lettered in gold-gilt at upper label, together with raised bands and thin black rules; metallic silver and white floral design on a light brown ground printed endpapers; edges marbled; handsome ex libris of Carolyn McCullough Everhard at the front pastedown depicting a woman in flowing garb within a diamond-shaped lozenge with her hands on a horizontal tablet in front of her bearing Everhard’s name; Art Nouveau-style, there is a lily to either side of the central figure, vines coiling around the roots of the two flowers and connecting them; one minor dampstain spot front cover; head of spine worn and lacking narrow strip of cloth; very good.
First edition. McCullough Everhard’s signature at the title page for Part I and her note at Part II, “1st Edition.” This may be a later printing of Part I; the publisher indicated the Second and Third Editions of the book on the wrappers, not retained when the book was rebound. Since Everhard noted “1st edition” at Part II, it may be inferred that she was aware that Part I was not a first edition.
Perhaps Stanton’s most radical act was the publication of this book, The Woman’s Bible, which challenged organized religion by including feminist interpretations and rewrites of many passages. In 1898 she brought out a second volume. Her religious rebellion had started as early as 1855, as she pursued the works of Thomas Paine and noted freethinker Col. Roger G. Ingersoll (who became a good friend). “Convinced that the church and its interpretation of the Bible were the greatest obstacles to the progress of women, and impatient with clergymen who quoted the Bible to limit woman’s sphere, she undertook a thorough study of the subject” (NAW). In 1885 she unsuccessfully endorsed a resolution critical of religion before the National Woman Suffrage Association. Undeterred, she addressed a gathering of 6,000 in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera House on the occasion of her 80th birthday asserting that the spheres of men and woman differed only according to the capacities of the individual and that women must demand an equal place in the church, including its business matters, discipline and formulations of creeds. This was the same year that The Woman’s Bible appeared. Mrs. Stanton’s advocacy of religious reform was consistent with the main concern of her life: advocacy of the overturn of any edict of church or state, which limited woman’s sphere.
Carolyn McCullough Everhard served as President of the Woman Suffrage Association of Ohio from 1891-1898 and as President Pro Tem at the NAWSA national convention of 1892. History Of Woman Suffrage credits McCullough (and her associate Kate Claypool) with obtaining the first breakthrough for woman suffrage in Ohio. After repeated failures to win municipal suffrage, Everhard persuaded Sen. William Clark in 1894 to sponsor yet another school suffrage bill in the Ohio legislature. It passed — though not without controversy. Even when in place woman suffrage opponents continued to work against the act and sought its repeal in 1898. In her last year as President of the Ohio suffrage association she fought successfully to squelch the repeal. Everhard’s proud ownership of the book at a time when many suffragists were distancing themselves from the book and its author suggest this suffrage leader’s doughty and individual character. The Woman’s Bible is a landmark book in the women’s movement and this copy is noteworthy for an exceptional provenance.
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