Raising More Hell and Fewer Dahlias

Book excerpt: This book is the first biography of nineteenth-century magazine editor and reformer Charlotte Smith. Based on years of research, and previously untapped sources, it shows both why she should be remembered and why she was forgotten. Her story is quintessentially American: this daughter of Irish immigrants, despite having only a grade-school education and supporting two children alone, became a force to be reckoned with, first in journalism and then in reform. Her first periodical, the Inland Monthly, was doubly rare: edited by a woman but not a women's magazine; and a profitable venture, bringing a large sum when sold.