The Beecher Sisters

A joint biography of three extraordinary sisters and the tumultuous century that they helped to shape The Beecher sistersCatharine, Harriet, and Isabellawere three of the most prominent women in nineteenth-century America. Daughters of the famous evangelist Lyman Beecher, they could not follow their father and seven brothers into the ministry. Nonetheless, they carved out pathbreaking careers for themselves. Catharine Beecher founded the Hartford Female Seminary and devoted her life to improving womens education. Harriet Beecher Stowe became world famous as the author of Uncle Toms Cabin. Isabella Beecher Hooker was an outspoken advocate for womens rights. This engrossing book is a joint biography of the sisters, whose lives spanned the full course of the nineteenth century. The life of Isabella Beecherwho has never been the subject of a biographyis examined in particular detail here. Drawing on little used sources, Barbara White explores Isabellas political development and her interactions with her sisters and with prominent people of the timefrom Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Mark Twain.