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^ 295 ••••••••• 129 • SBA to Herbert S. Stone and Company1 Rochester, N.Y., May 13th, 1899. My dear Sirs: Thanks for the volume entitled “Studies in the Psychology of Woman” by Laura Marholm. Her very first words destroy the value of her philosophy; when she says that woman’s true thinking is done through the brain of man my only conclusion is that what she has produced in this book is simply the filtered thoughts of a man’s brain, therefore it is not woman’s philosophy or psychology but entirely man’s after all, and we have had the masculine interpretation of woman since the first story of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Nevertheless the book is very interesting because it is a rehash of the masculine idea of the feminine. 2 My friend Rev.Anna Shaw traveled with me from Chicago and spent two days in our home. She read the book through and I have no doubt but that she will make a lecture on Laura’s “Psychology” as filtered through Man’s masculine brain. It surely is a most remarkable thing if God created every other living creature for its own sake, ending with man for his own, and then that His very last creation, woman, should not have been for her own happiness and developement but simply to be a reflection and addenda to man. As you suggest Miss Shaw found a great deal in the book to interest as well as amuse her. Its philosophy is most decidedly from the German standpoint, not at all based on the American idea of individual sovereignty for woman as well as man. Again thanking you for the book, I am, Very respectfully yours, U Susan B. Anthony Y TLS, on NAWSA letterhead for 1899, Stone and Kimball Archives, ICN. Directed to Eldridge Court, Chicago, Ill. 1. This Chicago firm had just published Laura Marholm,Studies in the Psychology of Woman. 2. SBA points to a contradiction in Marholm’s claims that continues to draw critical attention. Marholm opened the preface to her book with a boast: “This is 13 may 1899 296 & the first attempt at a Psychological Study of Woman which has been laid before the public by a woman” (7). Yet she avows that women cannot be original thinkers; “I start from the premises that the woman never, nowhere and in nothing, can make or mark a starting point; that all that she does, performs or suggests, represents always but a deviation, a connection with or continuation of something already produced, existing, done” (279). See also Brantly, Life and Writings of Laura Marholm, 140–43. ••••••••• 130 • ECS to Lillie Devereux Blake 250 West 94th Street New York City June 14th 1899 Dear Mrs Blake, Since our last conversation my thoughts have often dwelt on you. I feel moved to write you what in my opinion is the best thing for you to do. 1 You have not been treated by our young coadjutors with less consideration than I have been. They refused to read my letters and resolutions to the conventions. They have denounced the “Woman’s Bible[”] unspareingly; not one of them has ever reviewed or expressed the least appreciation of “Eighty Years and More.” Not one of my suffrage friends has ever thought it worth a complimentary notice in any of the metropolitan Journals, or even in the woman’s papers. A criticism on the Grand Rapids Convention neither the Woman’s Journal, nor the Woman’s Tribune would publish. 2 For all this I make no public protest, I propose no revenge. Because of this hostile feeling I renounced the Presidency and quietly accept the situation, and publish what I have to say in the liberal papers. 3 I do not cultivate any feelings of revenge or hostility, but quietly do my work in other ways that open to me. I have outgrown the Suffrage association, as the ultimatum of human endeavor, and no longer belong in that fold, with its limitations. Now you must do the same, do not cultivate any hostile feelings, nor try to revenge what you deem your wrongs,but use what talents you have in ways that are open to you Prepare able articles for our leading periodicals, and brilliant speeches for your various clubs. You can write and say your say in many ways, and at other times than in suffrage conventions. Feelings of discontent,anger,and revenge have a worse effect on ourselves than others . Let...

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