Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored [Hardcover]

Mary Gabriel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 1998

She was the first woman to address the U.S. Congress, the first to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street, and the first to run for president. She's the woman Gloria Steinem called "the most controversial suffragist of them all." In this extensively researched biography, journalist Mary Gabriel has written a comprehensive account of one of American history's most unusual and fascinating women, who, in an era of Victorian morality, was the loudest and most radical voice for women's equality. "One of the most controversial American women of the late nineteenth century springs to life in this study that leaves no stone unturned."--Publishers Weekly; "Deftly written biography . . . of a hell-raising visionary."--Mirabella; "A meaty slice of feminist history peppered with Victorian drama."--Civilization; "Remarkable . . . warrants a spot on every serious American history student's bookshelf."--Kirkus Reviews, pointer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Journalist Mary Gabriel hews more closely to the particulars of Victoria Woodhull's life than Barbara Goldsmith does in Other Powers, but in its more focused way her traditional biography is just as revelatory of larger issues in American society. Gabriel prompts new respect for the feminist who was so scandalous that she was erased from traditional feminist history. Woodhull was an intrepid go-getter who rose from a wooden shack in Ohio to a manor house in England, pausing along the way to become America's first female stockbroker (in 1870) and the first woman to run for president (in 1872).

From School Library Journal

YA?A fine biography of a little-known 19th-century suffragette. Woodhull's achievements read like fiction, especially considering her times. Born into poverty in 1837 to a family largely unconcerned with nuances of the law, she showed great promise early on. Taking advantage of the contemporary enchantment with spiritualism, she and her sister worked as clairvoyants while teenagers. Married at age 15 to an alcoholic and soon the mother of a retarded child, she worked on the stage until summoned home by her sister. The pair traveled as spiritual healers for several years until guided to New York by Victoria's second husband, James Blood, a progressive idealist who encouraged his wife's interest in women's rights. In New York she and her sister procured a patron, millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt, and established a brokerage firm and a newspaper to voice their liberal views. Both succeeded, testifying to Woodhull's capability, credibility, and vision. She ran for President of the U.S and espoused the fledgling Communist cause. She was a promoter of free love, to the horror of the nation. When it was revealed that she lived with her husband, ex-husband, and lover at the same time, she was widely reviled, financially ruined, jailed on trumped-up charges, and hounded out of the country. Young adults will enjoy her story, and marvel at 19th-century morals. A highly readable addition to biography and women's rights shelves.?Catherine Noonan, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565121325
• ISBN-13: 978-1565121324
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Balanced of the Woodhull Bios, March 28, 1998

By 

Mary Shearer ([e-mail]) (Troy, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored (Hardcover)

Mary Gabriel handles her subject, Victoria Woodhull, without criticizing her as other authors like Irving Wallace and Emanie Sachs have done. She has the perspicacity to treat the accusations of prostitution as just that--accusations and gossip heaped on a woman who dared to stand out from the crowd. Gabriel does more to clear Woodhull's name than Woodhull's husband, Col. Blood, was able to do in his lifetime. As a descendant of Col. Blood's last wife, Isabell Blood, I recommend this book, if for no other reason than it continues the work he tried to accomplish--proving that Victoria Woodhull was a courageous, forward-thinking, and spiritual woman maligned by her contemporaries.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Victoria's life unbiased without slanders or exaggerations, April 2, 2006

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored (Hardcover)

Victoria Woodhull was one of the boldest, most renowned, and most villified woman of the United States in the 19th century . Yet today many people have never heard of her. Also, what has been written about her has been so biased by attempts to either deify her or demonize her. Thus today's reader is well-served by this factual and chronological presentation of what can be known of the life of Victoria Woodhull. Mary Gabriel puts her background in journalism to good use in putting together this unbiased account of the woman and her times.

With chapter titles that consist of place names, months and years Ms. Gabriel takes the reader on a trip through Victoria's live from her birth in Homer, Ohio to her last days on her country estate in Glooucestershire, England. More than half the book is focused on the years 1971-1973 when Victoria, with her sister Tennie C. Claflin, rose to fame in a meteoric fashion. In this brief time they opened a brokerage house on Wall Street and published a news weekly on topics of social and political reform. In addition Victoria was the first woman to address a committee of Congress; she ran for president of the United States with Frederick Douglas as her running mate; and she presided over the women's suffrage movement, a New York chapter of the International Workingmen's Association, and the American Spiritualists Association.

Her stated goal was to rescue the women of America from sexual slavery and guarantee their rights to their own sexuality. When she found out that the famous minister Henry Ward Beecher was sleeping with members of his congregation during the week and condemning her politics from the pulpit on Sundays, she exposed his hypocricy. He was never condemned for his duplicity, but she was hounded into jail and ruin until her only recourse was to leave the country.

Mary Gabriel does a wonderful job of presenting the complex story, picking through the slanders and exagerations, and creating a readable history of this social reformer and her impact on her times. This is the best account of the life of Victoria Woodhull that I have read and I recommend it highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Woodhull deserves widespread recognition!, January 20, 2005

By 

Heidi "Laser Star" (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored (Hardcover)

Victoria Woodhull's fight for women's equal rights surpasses that of the other women involved in the movement at that time in its boldness and intelligence (read the previous review). Unfortunately, her modern views on human rights earned her many enemies within the feminist movement, some of which later expunged her from the movement's history. It seems that even today Woodhull hasn't the merit she deserves.

She was an amazing woman! Her life story would perhaps make a great movie, far greater than HBO's "Iron jawed angels".
Mary gabriel delivered a very well documented account of what truly happened in the second half of 19th century feminist movement.

Very inspiring and frustrating book at once.