“Hero Strong” and Other Stories: Tales of Girlhood, Female Masculinity, and Women’s Worldly Achievement in Antebellum America ed. by Mary F. W. Gibson (review)

Revolutionary changes to the market economy spawned a world of ambition, adventure, and self-reliance. The individualistic nature of antebellum America seemed, according to many personal and published accounts, the place of men and celebration of masculine achievement. Yet the new culture of the Jacksonian era extended beyond the confines of a solely male domain and into the lives of young women who saw new opportunities in areas of education, literature, and paid work. Daniel Cohen brings to life the long-forgotten example of this new female ambition in his edited volume of Mary F. W. Gibson’s short stories originally published in the 1850s. Writing at first under the pseudonym of Winnie Woodfern, Gibson told tales of female adventurers determined to overcome hardships through their own personal achievements and ambitions. In his analytical introduction to Gibson’s collection, Cohen skillfully contends that such a thematic approach permitted “women writers to liberate themselves from some of the constraints of literary domesticity” popular in nineteenth-century America (6).

Cohen’s biographical sketch of Gibson reveals a young female author who derived her passion for writing from her own life experience. Born in Vermont in 1835, Gibson faced adversity at an early age after losing her parents and, later, her older sisters, with whom she had a close relationship. However, Gibson sought to overcome her adversity by seizing new educational and economic opportunities for young women. After a year at a coeducational academy in Vermont during which a rebellious nature blossomed in the young teen, she left to pursue factory life in Lowell, Massachusetts. Gibson left wage-earning work to marry a considerably older and wealthy man in hopes of financial security. Yet the marriage soon failed, leaving the youth, then in her late teens, to support herself with earnings from her writings. At a time when young women viewed marriage, motherhood, and domesticity as the epitome of womanhood, Gibson sought an ambitious profession as a writer in the short papers popular among youths in the antebellum era and, in doing so, inspired a generation of young women to transgress the strict gender conventions of their time.

Gibson’s writings demonstrate a balance between popular domestic fiction and female masculinity. As Cohen notes, Gibson’s stories reflected the domestic idealization of writers such as Louisa May Alcott and the contrasting subversive writers like the better-known Fannie Fern, whom the youthful writer used as a model for her work. In tales such as “Hero Strong,” she introduces readers to a world of youthful ambition and masculine qualities typically associated with nineteenth-century male culture. In this story, Gibson’s protagonist strives for worldly success as a writer, yet marries in the end. It is, however, her ambition and success rather than domestic dependency that is the impetus to matrimony. “One Night in the Life of a Female Resurrectionist” introduces readers to female characters who aspire to a medical profession while encountering intrigue and adventure. In all the writings selected by Cohen, it is clear that Gibson’s writings revealed a slow departure from a domestic subject to a thematic liberation that sparked a cultural transformation in the aspirations of young women.

Cohen’s collection of Gibson’s stories, in tandem with his well-researched and engaging introduction, brings into high relief how the intersection of literature and popular culture eventually led to broad social change. The contributions of female writers who challenged the domestic literary script paved the way in the postbellum decade and beyond for women to break down barriers to male-dominated professions, higher education, and literary arts.