Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women's Rights

Clarina Nichols's name may not spring to mind as quickly as Susan B. Anthony's when people think about women's suffrage, but Nichols's work on the lecture circuit and as a newspaper columnist helped shape public opinion and pave the way for the passage of the 19th amendment. This fine biography takes advantage of newly discovered documentation of Nichols's life, which she, to her later regret, did not preserve for posterity in memoirs. After escaping a troubled early marriage, Nichols married a newspaper publisher in Vermont and soon took over the business. From its pages she argued for women's rights, abolition and temperance-the other great movements of her era-and her articles won her notice and a place in Anthony's circle. Despite Nichols's success as a speaker and public figure in the East, she felt the pull of the frontier and took her family to Kansas and later California, where her story takes on the less unique flavor of the pioneer tale. Eickhoff writes fluently, but also liberally quotes Nichols's columns and letters, allowing readers to get a taste of her eloquence as well as her progressive views. Though gaps in her story remain and what is known is not necessarily the stuff of legend, readers interested in history and women's rights will be glad to have learned about Nichols, a charismatic figure who had fallen out of history's sight for so long.