Queen Silver : The Godless Girl (Women's Studies (Amherst, N.Y.) [Hardcover]

Wendy McElroy (Author), Queen Silver (Author)

Book Description

Series: Women's Studies | Publication Date: December 1999

This is a fiery and profound biography of one of America's most amazing feminist thinkers, a woman who remained an active advocate of intellectual independence to the moment of her death in 1998 at the age of 86. Prolific feminist writer Wendy McElroy sympathetically chronicles the life of Queen Silver from personal interviews with her friends, published reports, letters, and a vast library of the family's personal papers. What emerges is a life like none other. A well-known thinker by the time she was 11-years-old, giving speeches titled 'Pioneers of Freethought', 'The Rights of Children', and 'Science and the Workers', Queen challenged three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan to a debate on evolution (he declined); organised an atheist group at her high school; and left home at 15 to marry a doctor three-times her age, which later became the source of a highly publicised divorce.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"McElroy brings both fondness and frankness to Silver's work..." -- Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2000

"Profound biography of one of America's most amazing feminist thinkers." -- Foreword, November 1999

"This fascinating biography includes some of Silver's salient articles and talks." -- Utne Reader, May/June, 2000

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573927554
• ISBN-13: 978-1573927550
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,152,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wendy McElroy makes me wish I had met Queen Silver, February 18, 2000

By 

Michael Morrison "morrisonhimself" (Tennessee, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen Silver : The Godless Girl (Women's Studies (Amherst, N.Y.) (Hardcover)

Wendy McElroy is one of this century's most brilliant women. She writes better than almost everybody else. More, what she writes about is so seldom dealt with intelligently or even rationally, and she does both beautifully. Her friendship with Queen Silver is worthy of a book itself, since the two disagreed about almost all the fundamentals: Queen was a socialist, Wendy is a libertarian. But both shared a love for an open society and freedom of speech, and a love for honor and honesty that seems almost absent from modern politics, among other things. Queen Silver was a major participant in a turbulent era, and Wendy McElroy has done her proud, and has done us, her readers, a major service with this fascinating and very personal history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable book, January 4, 2002

By 

Annette Hrisko-Allen (pdx,usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen Silver : The Godless Girl (Women's Studies (Amherst, N.Y.) (Hardcover)

She was a brilliant child lecturer, an incorrigible brat, a devoted freethinker, and a lifelong feminist. Queen Silver is one of those people that should be presented in any high school civics class (if such things still exist).

McElroy has given readers a book that can be appreciated on different levels. It can be read as a straightforward biography, detailing not only Queen's life but that of her mother, Grace Vaughn Silver, socialist lecturer and union advocate, who was the dominant figure in Queen's life. At 17, Grace left an abusive home with 5.00 in her pocket and the determination never to be anyone's slave. Ten days after giving birth to Queen, the pair resumed the lecture circut and Queen's life of freethought and self-education began.

This book also serves as a valuable collection of lectures and essays, illustrating Queen's diverse interests. These writings cover a wide variety of subjects, from the lesser known subversive works of Mark Twain to one of the earliest explorations of the Salem Witch Trials.

McElroy has written an engaging history of one of America's more intriguing subversives.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding story of an authentic child prodigy., May 3, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen Silver : The Godless Girl (Women's Studies (Amherst, N.Y.) (Hardcover)

When she was just eight a little girl with an odd name delivered six astounding public lectures on Darwin and Einstein. A child prodigy, Queen Silver was a feminist at a very early age and in later years worked to further women's rights. This biography examines her life and times, her achievements, and her strengths. An astounding survey of a young girl's early public awareness and social strengths.