The Woman Who Ran For President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull [Hardcover]

Lois Beachy Underhill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

_"-- Washington Post_

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on newly available material, Underhill, a former advertising executive, has written an outstanding study of controversial feminist Woodhull (1838-1927). Beautiful and charismatic, Woodhull and her sister made their living as spiritualists until financier Cornelius Vanderbilt established them as stockbrokers. With their wealth, they began a muckraking newspaper that argued for women's suffrage and free love. Woodhull became an influential speaker for women's rights and ran for president against Grant in 1870 as the nominee of the Equal Rights Party. Her advocacy of communism and sexual freedom (she married three times and had many affairs) angered feminists and liberals. In retaliation for his criticism, Woodhull publicized in her newspaper the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher's affair with a parishioner. This act resulted in lawsuits and effectively ended her career. She moved to London, remarried and denied her past. Underhill argues convincingly that, although Woodhull was deliberately left out of histories written by Susan B. Anthony and others, she was an important figure in the struggle for women's equality. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Those who questioned women's abilities had to contend with the likes of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman Wall Street broker. Underhill redeems from obscurity the feminist pioneer who ran for president in 1872 and was the first woman to testify before Congress on suffrage.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 347 pages
• Publisher: Bridgeworks; 1st edition (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882593103
• ISBN-13: 978-1882593101
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,850,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a life so fantastic, it doesn't seem true, April 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull (Paperback)

This is an amazing biography of Victoria C. Woodhull a little known suffragist and spirtualist of the late 19th Century. Growing up poor in a dysfunctional Ohio family she pulled herself up from poverty to become a leading sufferagist as well as opening with her sister the first female owned wallstreet brokerage company. This is just the tip of the iceberg as she ran for president in the 1870's, exposed a huge scandal concerning a leading New York minister, and eventually married into one of the richest families in England. Her ideas and opinions on sexuality, divorce, and women's rights were a hundred years before her time. She was no saint; her unconventional and adventurous lifestyle recieved much criticism and was her eventual undoing in society. Her life is more fantasic and entertaining than fiction. Victoria Woodhull has been hidden in the closet like a skeleton for too long; if you read any non-fiction this year, read this book!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ancestor, August 1, 2009

By 

Marcia L. Wardwell "reader" (NH, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull (Paperback)

I was surprised that Amazon had this on their front page. Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin is a distant relation

on my Mother's side. There is a Claflin Familly Association that meets yearly in July and we just celebrated

our 155th continuous reunion. We have had quite a few of our reunions at the Claflin-Richard House in Wenham,Ma.

I own this book and found it extremely informative and very interesting. I have been to Tewekesbury, England

and have seen the abbey where there is a Commemorative plaque honoring her. I have also been to Bredon's Norton

and have had dinner. It's a beautiful stately mansion. In 1988 The State of Ohio erected a marker in Homer.

Ohio to honor her. There are many other books on her life and times that are also worth reading.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Woodhull, a woman out of her time, July 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull (Paperback)

This biography is actually quite good - and overdue. Underhill seems to be not much 'captured' by her amorous and dominant beta female subject. (That's a common problem in biography). There are certain problems about V. Woodhull however, as there are about all prominent persons. She was, as was her sister, a courtesan, a New Age Spiritualist (inspired by the Fox 'knuckle cracker' sisters). Amazingly, a NY female Wall Street stockbroker!, a female candidate for president! Not much came of either, but she remained amazing anyway.
That she married some rich English baron or other and moved to England, thereafter supporting her neer do well relatives (including her mother) for decades (as she had in the States), seems beside the point, except that it's clear that she finally gave up the fight. As she saw it - or are we merely imagining how she saw it? Perhaps we expect too much from Victoria, and given her times, she pretty much gets a pass. She caused not such harm as Ellen White, Madam Blavatsky or Mary Baker Eddy. Give thanks.
Part of this biography delves into the internal feuds in the early 1st wave feminist movement, which tells us a bit about 'power seeking' (even in females), as does the life of Woodhull herself. At each stage of her (and her relatives) life, there are powerful males, her father, the drunken doctor she marries young, Cornelias Vanderbilt, her literary second husband, General Ben Butler, whoever is male and useful. Excepting her father, they all get sexed, and they all are useful. Not that such maneuvering towards the top by women is all that uncommon in the last 4,000 years of human history. That it's a woman's way, does not one thinks, make it a life to emulate in the modern feminist movement. I'll take Abigail Adams anytime.