Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was one of nineteenth century America's most celebrated women. A charismatic orator, author, and actress, she rose to fame during the Civil War and remained in the public eye for the next three decades. The first biography of Dickinson in over fifty years, this book reveals the largely forgotten story of a fascinating, controversial public woman.

J. Matthew Gallman is Professor of History at the University of Florida. An authority on the American Civil War, he is the author of Receiving Erin's Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855; The North Fights the Civil War: The Home Front; and Mastering Wartime: A Social History of Philadelphia During the Civil War.

• Introduction


• I. Anna Dickinson's Civil War


• 1: Early Life and Career


• 2: "The Necessities of the Hour": Anna Dickinson's Civil War


• 3: "Beloved of so Many": The Many Faces of a Woman in Public


• II. An Enduring Public Figure


• 4: "A Woman of Earnest Convictions": The Lyceum


• 5: What Answer?: Suffrage and Citizenship in the Postwar World


• 6: "What New Grief Has Come to You?": The Personal and the Political


• 7: From the Platform to the Stage: Clinging to Fame


• III. Decline and Fall


• 8: Decline and Fall


• 9: A Reputation Defended


• 10: Conclusion: Memories and Legacies


• Bibliographic Essay/ Notes