The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation [Hardcover]

Nancy Rubin Stuart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2008

Praised by her mentor John Adams, Mercy Otis Warren was America's first woman playwright and female historian of the American Revolution. In this unprecedented biography, Nancy Rubin Stuart reveals how Warren's provocative writing made her an exception among the largely voiceless women of the eighteenth century.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stuart reminds us that the U.S. Constitution—notably the Bill of Rights—carries Mercy Otis Warren's fingerprints as much if not more than those of most constitutional delegates. . . . This wonderfully researched and readable book has done an excellent job of giving another view of what it took to make this country.—Library Journal, starred review

"A valiant resurrection of an important early American author."—Kirkus

"A fascinating reminder . . . that the ideals of independence resonated as strongly with American women as with American men."—Christine M. Kreiser, American History

"Death by lightning, duels, treason, smallpox, 16-page rants written with quill pens, nervous breakdowns. This may sound like the stuff of an overwrought period novel, but it's straightforward fact in Nancy Rubin Stuart's nuanced biography of Mercy Otis Warren."—Kathleen Willcox, Bust

"Stuart has artfully set the story in the context of the Revolution . . . . A lively introduction to the great Mercy Otis Warren."—Edith Gelles, Wilson Quarterly

"Should be required reading in American history classes . . . . Warren was one of the great scribes of our American Revolutionary era."—Larry and Saralee Woods, American Spirit

"Warren emerges as a fully fleshed-out woman with literary insecurities, intractable opinions and a high-strung temper as well as deep affection for her husband and sons. Stuart includes fascinating period details, focusing primarily on Warren's home-front experiences of rampant inflation, scarcity of goods, high taxes and profiteering during the Revolution as well as typical 18th-century illnesses and family anxieties. Most poignantly, Stuart depicts Warren's loneliness and despair after the deaths of three of her five sons. This account is valuable as an eyewitness play-by-play of the American Revolution."—Publishers Weekly


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

Nancy Rubin Stuart is an award-winning author, journalist and writer-producer who specializes in women and social history. Her previous books include The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox, American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post, and Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen. In connection with her work she has appeared on several national television series and on NPR's "Morning Edition." Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and many national magazines. She currently serves as one of the directors of the Women Writing Women's Lives Seminar at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. While researching Mercy Otis Warren, she received a 2005 William Randolph Hearst Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society. She lives in Manhattan with her husband.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807055166
• ISBN-13: 978-0807055168
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As a nine-year old growing up in suburban Boston, Nancy wrote her first "book" about her mischievous dog and friends. "Being a red-head meant I was teased a lot," Nancy recalls. "I still wonder if that sense of being different impelled me to become a writer because I felt myself an outsider, an observer of others."

While raising her own children two decades later, Nancy became a stringer for the New York Times and won a scholarship to the Breadloaf Writers Conference. Those experiences sparked her first nonfiction book, THE NEW SUBURBAN WOMAN, followed by THE MOTHER MIRROR, ISABELLA OF CASTILE (a Book-of-the Month Featured Dividend) and the best-selling biography of Majorie Merriweather Post,AMERICAN EMPRESS.

Subsequent to writing several award-wining series for television, Nancy published the THE RELUCTANT SPIRITUALIST in 2005, a dramatic story about the origins of American spiritualism.

Her fascination with history led to research about Mercy Otis Warren, America's first female playwright and historian, for which Nancy won a fellowship to the American Antiquarian Society. In 2008 Beacon Press published that work, the award-winning THE MUSE OF THE REVOLUTION which appeared in paperback in 2009.

A seasoned speaker who appeared on C-Span's BookTV in 2008 and 2009, Nancy is writing a new book and serves as the director of the Cape Cod Writers Center Conference. She enjoys spending time with her husband and family, friends, gardening, historical preservation, dancing and the cultural life of Boston and Manhattan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vivid Tribute To A Feminist Patriot of the Revolutionary War, November 26, 2008

By 

Stuart Ellison "Author" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (Hardcover)

In Muse of the Revolution, author Nancy Rubin Stuart creates a vivid portrait of Mercy Otis Warren, an extraordinarily influential American woman of her time who had personal relationships with people such as George and Martha Washington, and Elbridge Gerry, a post-revolutionary ambassador to France. Through use of personal letters, family papers, and contemporaneous newspaper accounts, Ms. Stuart re-creates the life and times of Mrs. Warren, whose poems, satirical plays, and pamphlets helped shape the course of events surrounding the birth of the United States.

In her prescient play "The Group," Mrs. Warren accurately predicted the Battles of Lexington and Concord. She also published a pamphlet after the Revolution, ten points of which were incorporated into the Bill of Rights. And for 35 years she labored over a three-volume history of the Revolution and its aftermath, which was published late in her long life. Although it was initially heavily criticized and had few buyers, Mercy Otis Warren lived long enough to see her history vindicated.

Through meticulously annotated research--there are over 20 pages of endnotes and references--Ms. Stuart gives the reader intimate insight into Mercy's family life. Mercy's supportive husband James was first paymaster general of the Continental Army and a delegate to the Provincial Congress during the Revolution. At that time, Mercy was a long-suffering wife, as James was frequently away from home and vulnerable to the dangers of the conflict.

Mercy found a soulmate in another long-suffering wife, Abigail Adams, wife of John, with whom she became lifelong friends and exchanged extensive letters. Mercy also corresponded extensively with John Adams, who initially encouraged her to write but became infuriated with her in later years for her portrayal of him in her history. Ms. Stuart gives us an entertaining flavor of their virulent correspondence on this subject, a clash between a strong, highly intelligent woman and a blunt, irascible former president of the United States.

Some of the most touching portions of Muse of the Revolution involve the relationship between Abigail and Mercy. Both women had children in harm's way, and both women lost children to either illness or war. Abigail and Mercy console each other and ultimately rise above their political differences. They become fond of each other's family. Mercy becomes especially close to Abigail's daughter Nabby when the teenager spends a summer at her home. As a result, Mercy is nearly as heartbroken as Abigail when Nabby dies of breast cancer at age 47.

Ms. Stuart also does a good job of bringing to life the historical events through which Mercy lives. Readers will identify many of their own concerns with those of American citizens in revolutionary Massachussetts, including economic upheaval, government chaos, political polarization, and fear of inflation.

Beware, this is not a book for the casual reader. The eighteenth century vernacular takes a little getting used to, and the large number of characters is, at times, difficult to keep straight.

That said, I highly recommend Muse of the Revolution as a well-told, extraordinary story of an intellectually gifted woman whose writings had a significant impact on the Founding Fathers at a time when females were largely relegated to homemaking.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Patriot, August 8, 2008

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (Hardcover)

We make much of the Founding Fathers of our nation, with barely a nod to any founding mothers. There is the legendary composition of the American flag by Betsy Ross, but even if Ms Ross did so, no one pays attention to her ideas or opinions. We have Abigail Adams, whose recommendation to history was not just that she was married to John Adams, but also that she was a clear thinker and did not confine her frequent letters to domestic or matrimonial issues. And then we have Mercy Otis Warren. Who? Mrs. Warren is little known to our time, although she was well known in her own (and was known as "Mrs. Warren") for publishing plays and poetry with political and revolutionary themes, even though she had to do so anonymously, and for having close acquaintances among other writers and among the leaders of the age. She also wrote one of the first histories of the American Revolution, which, if it is not regarded as a classic, is still consulted by historians specializing in the era. That a woman of her time could have the confidence, perhaps the presumption, of writing history was a surprise to her contemporaries, and argues that she had some sort of greatness and is worth knowing about. _The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation_ (Beacon Press) by Nancy Rubin Stuart is a fine introduction to Mrs. Warren's life, and to the domestic and civil concerns of Revolutionary patriots.

Warren was born in 1728, and besides getting the domestic education all girls got, she was exposed to the books of her brothers, and succeeded when she begged to accompany them to school. Her love of reading, and her introduction to Pope, Dryden, Shakespeare, and others would affect her eventual writing style, but of course she didn't get to go on to Harvard as her brothers did. She married James Warren in 1754. He was a gentleman farmer and politician who was well known by all the more famous leaders of the Revolution. Mrs. Warren became known in her own way, and chief among her friends was John Adams, who would be a mentor and correspondent to her for decades. Adams introduced his young wife Abigail to Mrs. Warren, and the correspondence between the three forms much of the quoted material within this book. Warren's works included plays, satires of the times lacerating the Britons in authority who were oppressing the citizens. It's not fair to say she was a feminist, or even a proto-feminist. Though she thought a great deal about the news of the day, she was deferential. In a letter to her great friend John Adams, having mentioned the subject of patriots opposing Britain, she wrote, "I ask pardon for touching on war, politicks, or anything relative thereto, as I think you gave me a hint in yours not to approach... anything so far beyond the line of my sex." In writing about Mrs. Warren's reactions through the years, Stuart provides delightful insight to the sorts of day-to-day matters that were on her mind. We get to follow, for instance, her involvement in the daunting inoculation process against smallpox, a cure that had many of the aspects of the fearsome disease itself. Mrs. Warren reminds us that no matter how much we cherish our Revolutionary heroes, she spied during the war "a total change of manners" among the rising materialistic class of her countrymen with a new vogue in "profusion, pride and servility and almost every vice," and she was shocked at the "privateering" by those who made their profits in the war.

It is also refreshing to understand that many of the heroes in our bronze statues were but humans, as Mrs. Warren saw them. She was disgusted, for instance, by the ostentation of John Hancock in 1777, as he made his official travels in his gold coach accompanied by fifty horsemen from his private corps of cadets. This sort of throwback to the trappings of royalty was also to offend her when John Adams took power, and Adams was especially upset with Mrs. Warren's depiction of him in her _History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations_ (1805). The rift was severe, and Stuart summarizes their sixteen letters back and forth on the issue. Only the year before her death in 1814 did Adams deign to correspond again and the friendship was renewed. Mrs. Warren's story is also a reminder that the Constitution that we take for granted was a controversial document even among American patriots. She did not like it, and although her authorship was not known for 140 years, she wrote a treatise critiquing the document. The treatise played a role in the eventual drafting of the Bill of Rights. Stuart's book shows a woman of her times, but one with self-made erudition and with ambitions and influence outside the domestic sphere. It is an excellent summary of the life of an important patriot who made a difference during the times of the Founding Fathers.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Muse of the Revolution, September 4, 2008

By 

L.S. (Manhattan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (Hardcover)

A fascinating & entertaining account about one of America's forgotten outstanding women. I learned far more about the American Revolution and how it affected ordinary poeple by reading The Muse of the Revolution than I ever learned in my American history class.

L.S.
Manhattan