Pulitzer Prize Biography Winner

Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Forrest Wilson

Summary

Forrest Wilson chronicles the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin galvanized antislavery feeling across the North. The biography sets Stowe within the famous Beecher family and the reform movements of nineteenth century New England, tracing how a minister's daughter became one of the most influential writers of her age. Wilson balances her literary fame with the domestic and financial pressures that shaped her long career.

Historical Context & Significance

Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin became the best selling novel of the nineteenth century, a fact central to Wilson's account of her influence.