Audiobook · read by volunteers
Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
Read by Becky Miller, Linette Geisel, Jill, Availle, Theresa Sheridan, Lynne Carroll, Elena, Rhonda Federman, Karen Commins, Amanda Friday · 28 chapters · 14 h 45
About the book
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leader of the American women's rights movement, together with her friend Susan B. Anthony. In these memoirs, published when she was in her eighties, she looks back on a long life: her childhood in upstate New York, her schooling, her marriage, her large family and the meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848 where she called for votes for women. She recalls her friendships and quarrels, her travels, and the long campaign for reform, always with humour and a clear eye. The book is also a social history of the century, full of portraits of the people she met. A team of volunteer readers shares the twenty-eight chapters of these frank and lively reminiscences. Candid and often funny, it is the testimony of a woman who helped change her country's laws by changing minds.
Introduction
Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived from 1815 to 1902. Born in Johnstown, New York, she became one of the pioneers of the movement for women's rights in the United States. Together with Lucretia Mott and others, she organised the 1848 convention at Seneca Falls, and she wrote its Declaration of Sentiments. For more than half a century she worked closely with Susan B. Anthony, Stanton as the thinker and writer, Anthony as the tireless organiser and speaker.
Eighty Years and More appeared in 1898, and its subtitle gives the span of years it covers, from 1815 to 1897. The memoir is not a strict chronicle. Stanton tells her story as a series of scenes and portraits, with anecdotes about her father, her education, her friends among abolitionists and reformers, and the problems of raising seven children while campaigning for change. Her wedding journey, which took her to England for an antislavery convention, is among the episodes she recounts. She also takes the chance to comment on society and on the long struggle for equality.
This LibriVox recording lasts almost fifteen hours and is divided into 28 chapters, with a team of readers taking part. For listeners interested in the history of American reform, the book is a first-hand witness, and for anyone who enjoys a well-told life story it is a pleasure in its own right.
Stanton does not hide her opinions, and she is quick to laugh at herself. Her memories of travel, of dinner-table arguments and of the long friendship with Susan B. Anthony give the book a warm, personal tone, and it remains valuable as a first-hand account of a pivotal movement.
Public domain
Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in 1902: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text