The Solitude of Self - by Vivian Gornick (Paperback)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Solitude of Self is a profound, distilled meditation on what makes American feminism American from one of the finest critics of our time.

Vivian Gornick's gorgeous prose brings alive the magnificent Elizabeth Cady Stanton in all her brilliance, complexity, and prescient understanding of the centrality of the 'woman question' to American democracy.

This is a book for all who care about feminism, and also for those who care about the country itself, its deepest and finest aspirations.

Gornick transforms Stanton from a name in a Women's Studies class into a flesh-and-blood lady, convinced me that feminism itself is as American as apple pie.

Leading us into the thinking of this great feminist, Gornick offers a way to embrace the solitude that is, for every thinking human being, the fiercest attachment of all.

In heartfelt and toughminded prose, Vivan Gornick illuminates the fearless intellect of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the first American feminist to grasp the essential truth that an independent woman must free herself from worship of all man-made institutions--including those purporting to speak for God.

We all stand today on the shoulders of this giant.

Better late than never--although in the on-going story of feminism this 'essence of Stanton' is, in fact, alas, early.

A powerful meditation that is all at once informative and moving.