A keg of what?

 9 February 2023: 

Weddings sure have changed since 1828. (From Lydia Moland's new book, Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life.)

"Child's unfinished revolution..."

7 February 2023: "Child's long career of activism continues to resonate with meaning as new groups come forward to carry on the struggle for a just world. Her legacy embodies the best of the American heritage. It reminds us that a national history tarnished by Indian genocide, black slavery, and white supremacy has also been contested by progressive Americans of all races, committed to translating the inspiring words of the Declaration of Independence into practice. Child's heroic fidelity to the vision of a multiracial, egalitarian America and her tenacity in the face of obstacles and defeats challenge her successors to emulate her example. We who inherit Child's unfinished revolution can take courage from the watchword that encapsulates her indomitable idealism: 'Men's highest aspirations are prophecies'" (Karcher 614).

I spent some time today reading for my entry on Lydia Maria Child, a complicated and complex woman who I feel great admiration for. This passage--the closing paragraph of Carolyn L. Karcher's terrific book--seems appropriate tonight, as the State of the Union approaches. I won't be watching; news coverage after will be enough, but Karcher's book makes it clear that we if we had been listening to Child (like Alcott), we'd be in a better place as a country.

Work Cited 

Karcher, Carolyn L. The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child, Duke UP, 1994. 

Sunday check-in...

29 January 2023: Long Sunday shift at the office but I made some decent progress. Finished my Southworth entry (actually quite a bit of fun to work on) and shifted onto starting research for the general entry on Lydia Maria Child. 

On the non-work front, I had a good, long phone call with Vogel. Took my walk after I got home, as the sun started to go down. Now I'm watching Tár (so far, interesting and tense!) and thinking about dinner. Also working my way through the next book club selection (I Capture the Castle) and feel that pull to get back to it. That, combined with a new episode of The Last of Us, promises a pretty good Sunday evening, all things considered. 

"Whence came it?"

11 May 2022: “…my natural temperament is such that when I wish to do anything I seem to have an instinctive faith that I can do it; whether it be cutting and making a garment, or writing a Greek novel. The sort of unconsciousness of danger arising from this is in itself a strength. Whence came it? I did not acquire it. But the ‘whence? how? whether?’ of our inward life must always be answered, ‘From a mystery; in a mystery; to a mystery.'" -Lydia Maria Child, talking about herself

Still working on my Hobomok entry and just smiled and smiled when I read this passage. All that confidence and tenacity in a young woman in the early nineteenth century!

"deep and unwearied love"

8 May 2022: “There, in that miserable room, lay the descendants of two noble houses. Both alike victims to what has always been the source of woman’s greatest misery— love—deep and unwearied love." --Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok

Working on the Hobomok entry for my book. I am not sure when I last read this novel, but these lines stood out to me on this re-read.