May 22, 2003
DAILY SHOUTOUT: Leigh Fought, Ph.D.
It's a safe bet that everyone reading this posting has come up with at least one idea for a book in their lifetime. My brother Kenny, for instance, believes that his life's story could easily make one of The New York Times Best-Seller lists (I won't speculate which list), and since I've become an Acquisitions Editor for a large book publishing company, people have come out of the woodwork to suggest their ideas for the next great American novel. While it's unlikely that her new book will sell a million copies or make it onto the New York Times Best-Seller list, Leigh Fought nevertheless deserves major props for writing and working with a publisher to produce her first book, Southern Womanhood and Slavery: A Biography of Louisa S. McCord, 1810-1879.
Leigh and I met back in college, at the University of Houston, where she worked her butt off and was rewarded with a Ph.D. in History. We rekindled our friendship last year when I moved to Indianapolis, where Leigh is an Editor for the Frederick Douglass Papers while simultaneously teaching at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI).
Leigh's Southern Womanhood and Slavery is the first full-length biography of Louisa McCord, who I know from listening to Leigh is one of the most intriguing intellectuals in antebellum America. The daughter of a South Carolina planter and politician, and an essayist in her own right, McCord supported unregulated free trade and the perpetuation of slavery, and opposed the advancement of women's rights. Leigh's book examines the origins of McCord's ideas. McCord's life as a writer on "unfeminine" subjects, her reputation as strong-minded and masculine, her late marriage, her continued ownership of her plantation after marriage, and her position as the matron of a Civil War hospital contradicted her own philosophy that women should remain the quiet force behind their husbands. She lived during a time of social flux in which free labor, slavery, and the role of women underwent dramatic changes, as well as a time that enabled her to discover and pursue her intellectual ambitions. Leigh's book examines the conflict that resulted when those ambitions clashed with McCord's role as a woman in the society of the South.
Interested in reading more? Southern Womanhood and Slavery: A Biography of Louisa S. McCord, 1810-1879 will be available on Amazon.com in about two weeks.
Leigh... Congratulations... Your persistence continues to pay off... You go, girl!
Posted by Mikal at May 22, 2003 5:33 AM
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Dude, that third paragraph sounds awfully familiar.....
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!
Oh, and thank you!
