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Daughter of Boston: The Extraordinary Diary of a Nineteenth-century Woman, Caroline Healey Dall

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Caroline Healey Dall's (1822-1912) diary, written over 75 years, encompasses 45 volumes and most of the prominent people and ideas - Transcendentalism, slavery, women's rights - of the 19th century. As editor, Helen Deese has focused on the years from 1838 to 1865, distilling Caroline's output into one volume, well annotated and footnoted with a general introduction and summary prefaces to each new section.

The late 1830s and 40s were heady times for a young, devout, affluent, intellectual Unitarian like Caroline. Most of Boston's elite were Unitarians and the Transcendentalist movement, with its rejection of hard-line Calvinism, was blossoming. By the age of 18 Caroline was hobnobbing with the likes of Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Peabody (sister to Nathaniel Hawthorne's new wife) at Peabody's bookshop. She knew Emerson and Theodore Parker, the Unitarian minister whose denial of Biblical miracles and the divinity of Jesus created a furor. Always ardent, Dall was swayed by Parker and passionate in her defense of him. The Transcendental idea of finding God in everyone and every natural thing had a profound effect on her whole life.

Her early years were sheltered by class and family, leaving Caroline free to pursue a life of the mind. She had a strong will and intellectual self-confidence to match, though these were frequently undercut by her demanding father, for whom her efforts were never enough, and her exasperated mother who found her domestic skills wanting. Fuller and Peabody, as well, were sometimes critical of her vocal participation in meetings of her elders. The reader will sometimes share their impatience, though her parents do seem rather cold and erratic.

But when Caroline entered her 20s circumstances changed drastically. At the beginning of 1843 she looks back on a tumultuous year: "I was an heiress, somewhat a blue [stocking] - flattered and caressed and with few anxieties save - for the characters of my brothers and sisters, the sufferings of the poor - and a heavy care of my own reputation."

Then her father, a merchant and speculator, went bankrupt, a younger brother died and the man she loved rejected her. Caroline became a schoolteacher in Georgetown, near Washington D.C. Unitarianism was suspect and slaves were ubiquitous. The diary takes on a deeper, more mature character over this difficult period. Although she stayed only a year, it was enough to change her laissez-faire attitude about slavery and to get her engaged to a likeminded, but weaker willed minister.

From this point Caroline's diary is increasingly intense. While her father's financial affairs improved, her relations with him deteriorated over her abolitionist writing and activity, which he feared would harm him in business. Her husband was often disturbed by her forward behavior and his own politics made it difficult for him to keep a post. Caroline grieved that he could not provide her the emotional support she provided him, and poverty, pregnancy, drudgery and emotional turmoil all took their toll.

Deeply ambitious, she was thwarted by gender, but was also a product of her times. "I desire to be a perfect housekeeper - but am always afraid lest in a higher love of better things, I should omit some necessary trifle. I would not add to the reproaches cast upon literary women...." Still, she read and wrote voraciously, publishing numerous articles (though she was mortified when she had to publish "for bread") on books, lectures, issues and ideas.

As the years passed, her convictions became tempered with experience and her moral view - particularly on marriage - became more complex. But she remained proud of her iron will and steadfastness. Discussing Margaret Fuller's autobiography, she reflected, "Margaret says, `the lasting evil was to learn to distrust my own heart.' I could never do that. Instant is the decision of my nature in a given case, and I have never once had occasion to revoke or dismiss it." And "When my husband first knew me, he used to say that I reminded him, of two passages of Scripture, `for judgment - am I come' - and ` he shall judge the quick and the dead -` so trenchant were my decisions, and so absolute my convictions."

Brilliant and rather Puritan, Caroline would not have been an easy person to live with. But her honesty and acute self-examination over the course of a difficult marriage make her absorbing and appealing. Personal passages - including a horrific birth, a long self-examination in comparison with Margaret Fuller, despair over relations with her parents and husband, wrestling with her feelings for another man - will capture the general reader.

Caroline always intended her diary to survive her and be read by others, if only her children. Indeed, at the end of her life she arranged to donate them to the Massachusetts Historical Society. But except for some self-consciousness in the earliest sections, it never reads as if there's an audience in mind. Some of it is so raw and painful, in fact, it's surprising she did not rip out more pages (she did remove some). But that's part of the honesty that makes her interesting and sympathetic.

Those interested in the political and social events of the time will find day-to-day mentions and interactions with most of the prominent politicians, literary and religious figures. Neither Caroline nor her editor explain much about the historical context of these interactions so those not already well-versed in 19th century history may find themselves googling some occasionally cryptic passages.

But Deese's notes are extensive. She identifies everyone and every work or speech alluded to. For historians, the diary is a treasure trove. For everyone else it's a moving and fascinating portrait of a lonely, passionate, idealistic and conflicted woman who was very much of her times.

--Portsmouth Herald