The divorce colony, how women revolutionized marriage and found freedom on the American frontier, April White
Type
Label
The divorce colony, how women revolutionized marriage and found freedom on the American frontier, April White
Language
eng
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
resource.biographical
collective biography
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary Form
non fiction
Main title
The divorce colony
Nature of contents
bibliography
Oclc number
1275358782
Responsibility statement
April White
Sub title
how women revolutionized marriage and found freedom on the American frontier
Summary
"From a historian and senior editor at Atlas Obscura, a fascinating account of the daring nineteenth-century women who moved to South Dakota to divorce their husbands and start living on their own terms. In The Divorce Colony, writer and historian April White unveils the incredible social, political, and personal dramas that unfolded in Sioux Falls and reverberated around the country through the stories of four very different women: Maggie De Stuers, a descendent of the influential New York Astors whose divorce captivated the world; Mary Nevins Blaine, a daughter-in-law to a presidential hopeful with a vendetta against her meddling mother-in-law; Blanche Molineux, an aspiring actress escaping a husband she believed to be a murderer; and Flora Bigelow Dodge, a vivacious woman determined, against all odds, to obtain a "dignified" divorce. Entertaining, enlightening, and utterly feminist, The Divorce Colony is a rich, deeply researched tapestry of social history and human drama that reads like a novel. Amidst salacious newspaper headlines, juicy court documents, and high-profile cameos from the era's most well-known players, this story lays bare the journey of the turn-of-the-century socialites who took their lives into their own hands and reshaped the country's attitudes about marriage and divorce. "--, Provided by publisher
Table Of Contents
Prologue: "Is marriage a failure?" -- Maggie. A thriving and interesting place ; In good faith ; Just another ; Budding hope and dead passions ; A savage American -- Mary. Ardor and inexperience ; The campaigns ; Undesirable cattle ; A personal statement ; Let not man put asunder -- Blanche. A moral superstition ; Free as air ; The sentence ; To be left alone -- Flora. Happiness will follow thee ; A tramp and an exile ; Stupid, unjust, monstrous and foolish ; Light in the sky ; Heart -- Epilogue: A rising of ideals
Target audience
adult