Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon

A fascinating look at an underappreciated woman in American history whose newspaper fostered a national conversation on women's issues. Those who recognize the name Amelia Bloomer usually do so because of bloomers, the clothing item named after her. While she was a rational dress advocate for a time--calling on women to abandon rigid corsets and heavy petticoats and opt for long trousers, shorter skirts, and sensible boots--it was "but an incident" in the larger story of her life and impact. Bloomer edited and published The Lily, the first newspaper for and by women. Founded to promote temperance, it soon broadened to include some of the most important issues to women in that day, including the right to vote, and included contributions from thinkers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The groundbreaking paper brought the conversation from Seneca Falls right to the doorsteps of women across the expanding nation. Guided by a rigid sense of morality and a Puritan work ethic, Bloomer remained open-minded to new ideas. She refused to be swayed by social norms and wrote cutting responses to those who tried to intimidate or shame her and her friends, a group that included Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. This deeply researched biography by Sara Catterall follows the many chapters of her life: her humble upbringing in upstate New York, her role in the temperance movement (and its true legacy as a wellspring of the women's rights movement), her years at The Lily, her groundbreaking position as deputy postmaster in Seneca falls, her troubled health, and her eventual move to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she continued to move the needle on women's suffrage in the more flexible new governments of the West.

About the Author :
Sara Catterall is a writer with a Drama degree from NYU, and an MLIS from Syracuse University. She was born in Ankara and grew up in South Minneapolis. She has worked as a librarian at Cornell University, as a reviewer and interviewer for Shelf Awareness, and as a professional book indexer. Her work has been published in the NEH's Humanities magazine and The Sun magazine, and she co-authored Ottoman Dress and Design in the West: A Visual History of Cultural Exchange. She lives with her family near Ithaca, NY.

Review :
"In her riveting new biography, Sara Catterall reveals the extraordinary life of Amelia Bloomer, whose influence transcends women's history and extends far beyond dress reform. Bloomer has long merited recognition as a formidable force in the broader narrative of social progress and equality, and with this book, Catterall has finally given this American trailblazer the white hot spotlight she deserves." --Allison Gilbert, co-author of Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America's Most-Read Woman "Lively, enthralling, unexpected, Sara Catterall's biography of Amelia Bloomer plunges us into the beginning of the women's movement in all its complexity. Bloomer was a fierce, kind writer, newspaper editor, and critic. Listen as the activists who were just finding their public voices collaborated and argued about the future of women's rights. Reading this biography feels like going back in time with a guide who has one foot in the modern world and one foot in the 19th century. As Catterall argues, the true story is far better than the one for which we've settled." -- Amy Reading, author of The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker "Sara Catterall masterfully constructs the narrative of Amelia Bloomer's life, showcasing the innocence of her youth through the journey of her advocacy. Bloomer's story is captivating, demonstrating the struggles and setbacks of women but also what can be achieved through faith, persistence, and determination." --Nellie Ludemann, National Women's Hall of Fame, and past Executive Director of the Seneca Falls Historical Society Catterall, a former academic librarian, has written a timely and exhaustively researched biography, here observing that "it is also worth understanding how long many of our political debates have gone on . . . to understand what true progress could look like now." Sage words that resonate, given our current political landscape. - Booklist In this illuminating debut biography, journalist Catterall aims to reestablish the legacy of Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) as "a vital link in the early women's movement" rather than just "a dowdy fashion plate." - Publishers Weekly "Catterall takes her readers on a fascinating intellectual, professional, and personal journey that bears witness to Bloomer's transformation from a conservative supporter of the temperance movement to a formidable advocate of women's suffrage." - Tahlia Fischer, Finger Lakes Times