Stevens Memorial Library - North Andover Reads Adults Book, Discussion And Author Visit

Press release from the Stevens Memorial Library:

March 9th, 2021

For North Andover Reads 2021 we will be reading Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener by Kimberly A. Hamlin. There are unlimited copies available on OverDrive and physical copies are available at the reference desk, call to schedule a pickup time!

We have three virtual book discussion dates, register for any of them:

• Tuesday, March 30 @ 2 PM
• Wednesday, March 31 @ 10 AM
• Saturday, April 3 @ 2PM

And, on April 7 @ 7 PM we will have a virtual author visit with Kimberly Hamlin! Registration and details for all events can be found here.

Exposed in Ohio newspapers for an affair with a married man, Alice Chenowyth refused to cower in shame. Instead she changed her name to Helen Hamilton Gardener, moved to New York, pretended to be married to her lover, and became a wildly popular lecturer and author, brazenly opposed to sexist piety and propriety.

The “Harriet Beecher Stowe of Fallen Women,” she supported raising the age of sexual consent for girls (from twelve or younger), decried double standards of sexual morality, and debunked scientists’ claims that women’s brains were inferior. With liberal doses of feminine charm, Gardner networked tirelessly to persuade Woodrow Wilson and other male politicians to support the Nineteenth Amendment. Her effort, according to suffrage leader Carrie Pitt, was “the most potent factor” in its passage.

As more women enter politics than ever before, Kimberly A. Hamlin recovers the wildly entertaining and illuminating life of a brilliant, effective woman—all but forgotten—who paved the way.

Read about the book on Good Reads here.

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This press release was produced by the Stevens Memorial Library. The views expressed are the author's own.