Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life

-So you're the little woman who started this big war, - Abraham Lincoln is said to have quipped when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin converted readers by the thousands to the anti-slavery movement and served notice that the days of slavery were numbered. Overnight Stowe became a celebrity, but to defenders of slavery she was the devil in petticoats.
Most writing about Stowe treats her as a literary figure and social reformer while downplaying her Christian faith. But Nancy Koester's biography highlights Stowe's faith as central to her life -- both her public fight against slavery and her own personal struggle through deep grief to find a gracious God. Having meticulously researched Stowe's own writings, both published and un-published, Koester traces Stowe's faith pilgrimage from evangelical Calvinism through spiritualism to Anglican spirituality in a flowing, compelling narrative.
Watch a 2014 interview with the author of this book here:


Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Published: 01/13/2014
ISBN: 9780802833044
Pages: 371
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.95h x 6.11w x 1.01d
Award: Minnesota Book Award - Winner

Review Citations: Booklist 11/15/2013 pg. 14
Christian Century 04/30/2014 pg. 48
Choice 09/01/2014 pg. 95