Splendid biography of Julia Ward Howe, it was a true pleasure to read this book.
Fascinating and intriguing, well written. I really liked it.

I'm always disappointed when a choir sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic as a dirge--it is a crackling, angry song, alive with frustration and violence. Knowing more about its author explains a lot--Julia Ward, chafing under Calvinist paternal strictures, married an 1840s celebrity philanthropist, progressive and abolitionist under the impression that he would support her writing and ambitions. Instead, this man who was a pioneer in educating the disabled, champion of freed slaves and hero of the Greek wars of independence resented her money, stifled her creativity and expected a Victorian clinging vine. Producing the verses that became the anthem of the union's civil war launched Julia into celebrity of her own, and an equal status in the power couple, with enormous personal fallout. Showalter digs into the trove of family papers, reconstructing fragments of Julia's unpublished writing, translate the discreet between-the-lines comments in women's letters and sets the Howes in the context of the couples in their social circle.