THE SCARLET SISTERS
“Sensational doesn’t begin to describe the over-the-top reaction that greeted every aspect of the lives of nineteenth-century America’s two most controversial sisters. Flamboyant, outspoken, opportunistic Victoria Claflin Woodhull and her younger sister, Tennie, were self-aggrandizing scene-stealers who tangled with Henry Ward Beecher, swindled Cornelius Vanderbilt, and antagonized Susan B. Anthony. Yet for all their pomp and bombast, they were unrepentant champions of equal rights for women in everything from the bedroom to the boardroom, the voting booth to the battlefield. Dismissively patronized by men for being empty-headed fripperies and scathingly ostracized by women for their unladylike bravura, the sisters courageously battled such defamatory characterizations to bring their controversial views on monogamy and suffrage to packed lecture halls throughout the country. MacPherson draws a detailed portrait of the roller-coaster, rags-to-riches lives of two backwoods country girls who, seeking to better their own situation, hoped to do the same for women everywhere. Sadly, MacPherson concludes, many of their causes remain little changed 150 years after their tireless campaigns began. ” ― Carol Haggas
THE SCARLET SISTERS has everything‹from history and intrigue, to sex and money… A fabulous delight of a read.” Jim Lehrer, former PBS Newshour Host and author.
“Sensational…MacPherson gives a detailed portrait of the roller-coaster, rags-to-riches lives of two backwoods country girls, who, seeking to better their own situation, hoped to do the same for women everywhere… ” Booklist.
“Ordinarily, one would look to the fiction of Twain or Dickens to find a 19th century tale to match the real-life saga of the sisters Claflin-Woodhull. Happily, Myra MacPherson has rediscovered these proto-feminists.” Carl Bernstein Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist, author of A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“…A riveting, often uproarious chronicle…” Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of Mark Twain: A Life
“…Both a great tale, and a great read!” Jane Mayer, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of The Dark Side
“THE SCARLET SISTERS is a roller-coaster ride though American history that will amaze and delight readers.” Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
“MacPherson writes the story of these fearless and path-breaking 19th century radicals with her trademark energy and wit.” Ellen Goodman Pulitzer prizewinning journalist
“Woodhull and Claflin deserve credit for crashing the glass front doors of Wall Street, Washington, and bedrooms across the country 140 years ago. These amazing pioneers are brought to life in MacPherson’s enthralling book.” ―Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould and Black Friday, 1869.
“Myra MacPherson crusades for the Scarlet Sisters, two scandalous suffragettes”, Vanity Fair
“MacPherson aims her wit and very sharp pen at a side of the suffrage movement rarely seen in history books, epitomized by these two real sisters…MacPherson…takes us on a raucous romp through secret trysts, their self-published weekly advocating free speech and free love, sensational trials, fortune-telling, Spiritualism and brushes with the most powerful capitalists and revolutionaries of the time. Along the way the sisters set the suffrage movement on fire — albeit briefly — with their modern ideas, fiery rhetoric and passion for women’s rights.” Los Angeles Daily Journal; Elaine Elinson, Gold Medal winner, 2010 California Book Awards.
LONG TIME PASSING
“MacPherson’s book belongs with the best of the works on Vietnam, and there has been no better body of war literature that I know of.” Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22.
“A brilliant and necessary book…this stunning depiction of Vietnam’s bitter fruit is calculated to agitate even the most complacent American.” Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Enthralling reading….full of deep and strong emotions.” New York Times.
“Dramatic and extremely perceptive….[MacPherson’s] findings are unsettling.” Newsday.
“There have been many books on the Vietnam War, but few have captured its second life as memory better than Long Time Passing. Washington Post.
“Crowded with poignant moments…Persuasive evidence that the Vietnam crisis of spirit is still with us.” Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“Powerful, poignant…The best book yet on the Vietnam experience.” Chattanooga Times.
“Powerfully shows the many ways Vietnam’s shadow falls across our national life.” Chicago Tribune Book World.
Quoted from the book on several websites, including Memorable and Finest Quotes: MacPherson: “Above all, Vietnam was a war that asked everything of a few and nothing of most in America.’
ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE
“All Governments Lie! is a work equal to its subject―carefully and thoroughly reported, keenly thought out, by turns judicious and appropriately sympathetic… it does equal justice to Stone’s life and his work, setting both in a narrative context that will make them intelligible to a generation for whom the 20th century’s intellectually and physically murderous strife is receding into murky and attenuated memory.” – Los Angeles Times
“More than a biography, it’s a study of the press and government.” – USA Today
“MacPherson…paints the political landscape in which Stone came of age…” – The New York Times
“MacPherson succeeds with a breadth and depth of detail that would make her subject cackle with delight.” – Boston Globe
“MacPherson is tireless and engaging in making her claim for Stone as a sui generis muckraker.” – Washington Post
“Myra MacPherson’s lovely biography of the man…is ideally timed for the moment…” – Christopher Hitchens – Vanity Fair
“Highly recommended. Remarkable. It is a biography with an unusually rich context.” – Chicago Sun Times
“(A) well-researched and sympathetic biography.” – Rocky Mountain News
“MacPherson…is an engaging guide.” – The San Diego Union Tribune
“MacPherson’s book is a marvel in its breadth and depth of research.” – The Plain Dealer
“…(a) sweeping biography.” – Mother Jones
“A brilliant biography…” – The Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Despite its size, this book is not a door stop, it’s a brain stop. Read it!” – Gore Vidal.
“A valuable book… not only a biography of Stone but a detailed history of government attempts to manipulate public opinion through much of the twentieth century.” – Columbian Journalism Review
“In All Governments Lie!…Macpherson has not only done a splendid job of profiling Stone but has weaved into her narrative a penetrating social and political history of the times in which he lived.” – Sacramento Bee
“This biography interweaves his life and journalism within the context of the social and political era, providing an engaging overview of a complex man who challenged his contemporaries.” – Library Journal
“With painstaking research, MacPherson offers a penetrating look at one of the nation’s most respected journalists and a tour de force of five decades of challenge to the principles of press freedom in a democracy.” – Booklist, starred
“MacPherson…(writes with) exceptional rigor, devotion and fairness. Much as Stone might have done, she sets his tale in richly detailed context, with proper emphasis on his maverick stance against the establishment press.” – Salon.com
“Stone remains enormously relevant today, in an era of too much journalistic acquiescence. … ‘Izzy,’ as he was called, emerges as a challenging, complex fellow, an ebullient workaholic. But his legacy was earned by a willingness to read documents in depth and apply his eclectic, passionate intelligence — and MacPherson brings all this to life in this terrific and timely book.” – Publishers Weekly, starred
“MacPherson is fearless herself in considering such contradictions as a muckraking millionaire, delivering a welcome and readable study of the influential journalist, ever missed.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred
“At last! Myra MacPherson has offered us the definitive life and times of the most independent journalist of our epoch ─ I. F. Stone. Known as Izzy, he revealed to us in his tiny four-page weekly not the ‘objectivity’ of the Official Word but a hard truth from the bottom up. This book may become a classic: it is mandatory for all young journalists.” – Studs Terkel
“I loved every page of this book. My God, what fabulous stories―newspaper stories, political stories, world history and the greatest tabloid there ever was, all crammed into one life.” – Molly Ivins, author of Who Let the Dogs In
“…the right book at the right time. It is not only the fascinating story of an American original, it is also a sophisticated history of what went wrong between American journalism and American government.” – Richard Reeves, author of President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination
“Myra MacPherson is a brilliant writer who has written a great book about a journalistic idol ─ Izzy Stone. Would that he were alive today to lead our country to its greatest ideals again.” – Helen Thomas, Hearst newspapers columnist and author of Watchdogs of Democracy?
“Izzy Stone comes as close to living up to the rhetoric of free speech and a free press as anyone in the twentieth century. His story is told here in the rich historical context of his time. This book is an important contribution to the current debate about the future and the nature of journalism and why the public as well as journalists should be involved in that debate.” – Bill Kovach, chairman, Committee of Concerned Journalists
“Thanks to Myra MacPherson, we finally have a nuanced and sophisticated biography of one of the great legends of American journalism. One can only hope that it wakes up some of the lapdog reporters in today’s Washington press corps and reminds them, as I. F. Stone taught us during the Cold War, that ‘all governments lie.'” – Craig Unger, author of House of Bush, House of Saud
“Where is Izzy Stone when we need him? His spirit is back in ‘All Governments Lie,’ a powerful, passionate biography of the courageous writer who defied Official Washington and inspired several generations of journalists. Myra MacPherson, a pioneer in the art of cutting-edge profiles, is brilliant in evoking his life and times.” – Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie
SHE CAME TO LIVE OUT LOUD
“Through this very personal story about one woman’s battle with breast cancer, Myra MacPherson weaves practical and inspiring lessons into an intimate portrayal of Anna and her family and friends. Those who have an illness and those who care for someone with an illness will benefit from Anna’s energy and courage and the support and dedication of those who love her. We have much to learn about coping with illness – Myra MacPherson’s book is a powerful educational tool for a very difficult subject.” – Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, coauthor of Helping Yourself Help Others: A Book for Caregivers
“(The book) is moving, deeply moving…I hope it reaches many readers and penetrates their hearts.” – Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Laureate, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Boston University
“To write about grief without mawkishness, with deep, real feeling for what it really is, requires a truly good writer. Myra MacPherson has done that.” – Betty Friedan, author of the Feminine Mystique
THE POWER LOVERS