Saturday, 06 February 2010

One of my all-time favorite books is The Peabody Sisters of Salem by Louise Hall Tharp. The two younger sister, Mary and Sophia, are probably best known for the men they married. Sophia married the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mary married the education reformer Horace Mann. The oldest sister, Elizabeth, never married and was the one I admired most....not b/c she never married but b/c she was an independent woman of the 19th century who spoke her mind and stood her ground. She said one of the most profound statements that I have kept w/ me since I first read this book 30+ years ago. She said that she wasn't very good at keeping a journal of her life b/c she was too busy living it to take time to write about. I must agree w/ you tonight, Elizabeth, b/c I'm going dancing w/ my husband so I'm too busy living to write about it.