Her life was no children's book. Louisa May Alcott's story is as full of incident, surprise, and heroism as any plot she invented; her childhood was one of high ideals, low finances, and some thirty household moves. The daughter of philosopher-educator Bronson Alcott, she was home schooled by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, served as a nurse in the Civil War, fought for women's suffrage, and lived a secret literary life as a writer of...

This is a biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935): Beecher-descendent, zealous reformer, exhilarating lecturer, prolific writer, scandalous divorcee, "unnatural mother, " international celebrity, and life-long controversialist. It offers the definitive account of this controversial writer and activist's long and eventful life. She launched her career as a lecturer, author, and reformer with the story for which she is best-known today, "The...