Book List: "Harriet Beecher & The Beecher Preachers"

This book by Jean Fritz captures the character of Harriet Beecher Stowe in a way that Harriet herself would be proud of. She tells the story as if she and Harriet had lived together their entire lives, as if Fritz was writing Uncle Tom's Cabin right there with Stowe.

I am only halfway through Harriet's book Uncle Tom's Cabin, but Fritz's description of the author gives me a new perspective on Stowe's literary works, and makes me want to continue reading them with intensity. She also gives an insightful look into the events leading up to the civil war in a way I hadn't seen before. It definitely sheds light on the fact that many people benefitted from the start of a war-- Harriet was able to build her dream home as the war took hold because of the profits she made solely on her writings about the Civil War. She did more than any woman could during that time period, but even her brother, Henry Ward, seemed to be financially successful as a result from the war's beginning.

Not only has Jean Fritz renewed my interest in Stowe's novels, she has also accurately given a picture of every struggling writer. With a family of six kids, the expectations of an overbearing father, and an extremely low amount of self-esteem, Harriet Beecher Stowe changed the course of a nation through her writing. Perhaps the books themselves don't inspire me as much as the author has. The power that comes with the written word has motivated me to continue working on my writing-- to make it better, more insightful, and perhaps more revolutionary.

One sad thought that worries me after reading this book is that the Civil War was part of a sort of "Golden Age" for revolutionary writers. There have obviously been influential writers, speakers, and people in the past, but I'm starting to think the age of revolutionary people has ended. In today's world, with so many voices speaking out with so many different opinions, the chances of getting published like Harriet Beecher Stowe did are very slim-- unless you come out with a truly spectacular, radical piece of literature, your voice can easily be drowned out by the thousands and millions of wanna-be world-changers that this generation has become. Even if I did find a Voice and a Cause, even if I had a Calling and an Art, I wouldn't have nearly the same affect on the world as Stowe did, based simply on the overwhelming population of content-creators and self-publishers. All we can do is to hope and dream of being influential people, and cross our fingers for that stroke of luck that sends crappy books like Twilight of Fifty Shades of Gray to the New York Times Bestseller list. Maybe, if we keep putting in those 10,000 hours of hard work, all that practice will bring about something truly amazing-- amazing enough to be revolutionary. Maybe.