Books
Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother
AVAILABLE Nov 6, 2012
Louisa May Alcott was one of the most successful and bestselling authors of her day, earning more than any of her male contemporaries. Her classic Little Women has been a mainstay in American literature since its release nearly 150 years ago, as Jo March and her calm, beloved “Marmee” have shaped and inspired generations of young women. Biographers have consistently attributed Louisa’s uncommon success to her father, Bronson Alcott, assuming that this outspoken idealist was the source of his daughter’s progressive thinking and remarkable independence.
But in this riveting dual biography, awardwinning biographer Eve LaPlante explodes these myths, drawing from a trove of surprising new documents to show that it was Louisa’s actual “Marmee,” Abigail May Alcott, who formed the intellectual and emotional center of her world. Abigail, whose difficult life both inspired and served as a warning to her devoted daughters, pushed Louisa to excel at writing and to chase her unconventional dreams in a male-dominated world.
In Marmee & Louisa, Abigail’s greatniece and Louisa’s cousin Eve LaPlante re-creates their shared story from diaries, letters, and personal papers, some recently discovered in a family attic and many others that were long thought to have been destroyed. Here at last Abigail is revealed in her full complexity—long dismissed as a quiet, self-effacing background figure, she comes to life as a fascinating writer and thinker in her own right. A politically active feminist firebrand, she was a highly opinionated, passionate, ambitious woman who fought for universal civil rights, publicly advocating forabolition, women’s suffrage, and other defining moral struggles of her era.
In this groundbreaking work, LaPlante paints an exquisitely moving and utterly convincing portrait of a woman decades ahead of her time, and the fiercely independent daughter whose life was deeply entwined with her mother’s dreams of freedom. This gorgeously written story of two extraordinary women is guaranteed to transform our view of one of America’s most beloved authors.
Early Reviews of Marmee & Louisa ...
“‘Let the world know you are alive!’ Abigail Alcott counseled her daughter, who amply did, having inherited her mother’s spirit and frustrations, diaries and work ethic. Along the way Louisa May Alcott immortalized the woman in whose debt she understood herself to be and who ultimately died in her arms; Eve LaPlante beautifully resurrects her here. A most original love story, taut and tender.”
—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize winner, bestselling author of Cleopatra
“Revisionist dual biography shows just how much iconic children’s author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) ‘was her mother’s daughter.’ LaPlante, a descendant of Abigail May Alcott’s brother, relies on previously undiscovered family papers and untapped pages from Abigail’s dairies to provide new evidence exposing her undeniable influence on her daughter...LaPlante ably demonstrates that Abigail was a ‘vibrant writer, brilliant teacher and passionate reformer’; she fought to eradicate slavery and promote women’s equality...In contrast to earlier Alcott biographies that credit Bronson for guiding their daughter’s education and ideas, LaPlante suggests it was Abigail who nurtured Louisa’s feminist ideals and encouraged her to write and keep a diary...Fresh material gives flesh to the formerly invisible Abigail, revealing how she and her famous daughter mirrored one another...Both longed for freedom; neither achieved it...Thoroughly researched and moving.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“This is an important book about an important relationship. Writing engagingly and with precision, Eve LaPlante sheds new light on the Alcott story, a story that is in some ways the story of America.”
—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer winner, bestselling author of Thomas Jefferson
“A heartwarming and thoroughly researched story of family interdependence very much in the style of Louisa’s own unforgettable Little Women. No other biographer has examined so thoughtfully and with such compassion the mother-daughter relationship that supported both women through decades of adversity and brought a great American novel into being.”
—Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters and Margaret Fuller
“‘Reason and religion are emancipating woman from that intellectual thralldom that has so long held her captive.’ That was the dearest hope of Louisa May Alcott’s mother, Abigail, who was a writer herself and juggled work and family in ways that will be strikingly familiar to many contemporary readers. Marmee & Louisa is the engrossing story of a vibrant, talented woman whose life and influence on her famous daughter has, until now, been erased.”
—Anne-Marie Slaughter, University Professor, Princeton University
“Compelling...LaPlante admirably seeks to paint a fuller picture of Abigail and her role in Louisa’s life....[and] allows her protagonists to speak for themselves.”
--Publishers Weekly
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My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother
AVAILABLE Nov 6, 2012
Little Women’s “Marmee” is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction — Louisa May Alcott’s own mother, Abigail — has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived.
Until now. When Abigail’s biographer and greatniece Eve LaPlante found a trove of letters and diaries in an attic trunk, a window opened once more onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding plain sight. Exploring the archives of Alcott family material, LaPlante discovered a treasure tove of writing that until now were largely ignored. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker in her own right, and a feminist far ahead of her time. Abigail embraced abolition long before her famous, idealist husband and harbored fugitive slaves in her home. She petitioned the government for women’s suffrage. She disdained the institution of marriage as demeaning and even dangerous to women. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves, and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a a career.
Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman’s story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail’s private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, wife, sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
Early Review of My Heart Is Boundless ...
“This revealing collection of Abigail May Alcott’s writings provides previously unknown details of the life of a 19th-century daughter, sister, wife and mother who associated with transcendental luminaries, suppressed her own dreams to provide for her family, inspired her famous daughter Louisa, and remained an ardent reformer for abolition and women’s rights. Until now, little has been known of Abigail’s life...While writing...Marmee & Louisa (2012), LaPlante uncovered surviving, untapped pages of Abigail’s journals and letters in archival and private collections, as well as a newly discovered cache of letters...Organized chronologically, Abigail’s diaries and letters disclose an intelligent, self-sacrificing, tender woman whose moral conviction and strong character kept her engaged in social issues despite her tragic marriage...Helpful annotations and a chronology provide further contextual detail. A compelling documentary portrait of the real Marmee, whose life provided the impetus for Little Women and who emerges here as a noteworthy woman in her own right.”
--Kirkus Reviews
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Books-a-Million
AVAILABLE Nov 6, 2012
Little Women’s “Marmee” is one of the most recognizable mothers in American literature. But the real woman behind the fiction — Louisa May Alcott’s own mother, Abigail — has for more than a century remained shrouded in mystery. Scholars believed that her papers were burned by her daughter and husband, as they claimed, and that little additional information survived.
Until now. When Abigail’s biographer and greatniece Eve LaPlante found a trove of letters and diaries in an attic trunk, a window opened once more onto the life of this woman who has for too long been hiding plain sight. Exploring the archives of Alcott family material, LaPlante discovered a treasure tove of writing that until now were largely ignored. No self-effacing housewife, Abigail was a passionate writer and thinker in her own right, and a feminist far ahead of her time. Abigail embraced abolition long before her famous, idealist husband and harbored fugitive slaves in her home. She petitioned the government for women’s suffrage. She disdained the institution of marriage as demeaning and even dangerous to women. She taught her daughters the importance of supporting themselves, and dreamed of a day when a woman, like a man, could enjoy both a family and a a career.
Here at last, in her own words, is this extraordinary woman’s story, brought to the public for the first time. Full of wit, charm, and astonishing wisdom, Abigail’s private writings offer a moving, intimate portrait of a mother, wife, sister, and a fierce intellect that demands to be heard.
Early Review of My Heart Is Boundless ...
“This revealing collection of Abigail May Alcott’s writings provides previously unknown details of the life of a 19th-century daughter, sister, wife and mother who associated with transcendental luminaries, suppressed her own dreams to provide for her family, inspired her famous daughter Louisa, and remained an ardent reformer for abolition and women’s rights. Until now, little has been known of Abigail’s life...While writing...Marmee & Louisa (2012), LaPlante uncovered surviving, untapped pages of Abigail’s journals and letters in archival and private collections, as well as a newly discovered cache of letters...Organized chronologically, Abigail’s diaries and letters disclose an intelligent, self-sacrificing, tender woman whose moral conviction and strong character kept her engaged in social issues despite her tragic marriage...Helpful annotations and a chronology provide further contextual detail. A compelling documentary portrait of the real Marmee, whose life provided the impetus for Little Women and who emerges here as a noteworthy woman in her own right.”
--Kirkus Reviews
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Books-a-Million
Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall
In 1692 Samuel Sewall, a forty-year-old father of five, sat on the colonial court that tried hundreds of people accused of witchcraft. Believing the girls who claimed their neighbors bewitched them, Sewall convicted and condemned to death more than thirty women and men, including two of his friends. He and the court executed twenty people before public opinion turned and the governor halted the proceedings. Sewall struggled internally for years before publicly assuming “the blame and shame” for the wrongful convictions and deaths. He went on to compose America’s first antislavery tract and a revolutionary essay portraying Native Americans as virtuous inheritors of God’s grace. In a period when women were considered inferior to men, Sewall publicly affirmed the fundamental equality of the sexes. Through his long repentance Sewall became America’s most surprising moral hero.
Featured on NPR’s “Here and Now,” in The Boston Globe (profile by David Mehegan), and on Comcast CN8’s “Your Morning.”
Winner of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction.
Winner of the 2008 Winslow House Book Award “for the best book published in 2007 concerning the interaction of early New England (1620-1852) with the wider Atlantic world.”
“Salem Witch Judge upends popular stereotypes about Puritans...LaPlante’s touching biography of Samuel Sewall...seems hauntingly familiar. Beneath the sensational title is a figure more familiar than we realize.”
--New York Times Book Review
“Compelling...Fascinating...Salem Witch Judge offers an intriguing journey into a world as far away as colonial America — and yet at the same time as close as the human heart.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“LaPlante’s splendid biography brings a personal touch to Sewall’s story.”
--Publishers Weekly
“A Highly Recommended Book of 2008.”
--Boston Authors Club Book Awards
“Affectionate and affecting...LaPlante’s portrait of a man whose second act became one of atonement as well as contrition is finely drawn.”
--Philadelphia Inquirer
“The toughest thing in politics is to admit you were wrong and to do something about it. That, remarkably, is what Samuel Sewall did, and in so doing, he fundamentally changed the debate over witchcraft forever. At a time when at least some Americans are arguing that we have to cut back on our civil liberties in the interest of national security, LaPlante’s biography of Sewall profiles an early American politician whose example stands out for its courage and its wisdom.”
—Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts
“Well researched, readable, and engaging...Fascinating...Recommended.”
--Library Journal
“Insightful...Vivid...A reformative, assenting spin on Salem’s hellfire and brimstone history.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“Sympathetic and richly detailed.”
--Boston Globe
“Eve LaPlante recounts the life of her ancestor lovingly, but meticulously. In the process, she expertly guides us through the religious life of colonial New England, from well before the 1692 Salem witchcraft episode to long after Samuel Sewall’s somber reflections on — and his apology for — his role in that hysteria. LaPlante also reveals the ever enlarging magnanimity of Sewall’s spirit, specifically with respect to slaves, Native Americans, and women. His life — and her book — deserve our total and grateful attention.”
—Edwin S. Gaustad, Professor Emeritus, U. Cal., Riverside, author of The Religious History of America
“An incredible look at a man who was a pioneer in the forming of the American consciousness. Eve’s view of Samuel’s morality is a reminder to modern day America of how this great nation was formed.”
—Jeremy Sewell, chef/owner of Lineage Restaurant
“Judge Sewall is one of the great public figures of pre-revolutionary America, and his ‘confession’ for his part in the Salem witch trials remains a high and all-too-rare example of public contrition. His example is pertinent to our times.”
—Peter J. Gomes, author of The Good Book
ORDER NOW at:
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Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
In 1692 Samuel Sewall, a forty-year-old father of five, sat on the colonial court that tried hundreds of people accused of witchcraft. Believing the girls who claimed their neighbors bewitched them, Sewall convicted and condemned to death more than thirty women and men, including two of his friends. He and the court executed twenty people before public opinion turned and the governor halted the proceedings. Sewall struggled internally for years before publicly assuming “the blame and shame” for the wrongful convictions and deaths. He went on to compose America’s first antislavery tract and a revolutionary essay portraying Native Americans as virtuous inheritors of God’s grace. In a period when women were considered inferior to men, Sewall publicly affirmed the fundamental equality of the sexes. Through his long repentance Sewall became America’s most surprising moral hero.
Featured on NPR’s “Here and Now,” in The Boston Globe (profile by David Mehegan), and on Comcast CN8’s “Your Morning.”
Winner of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction.
Winner of the 2008 Winslow House Book Award “for the best book published in 2007 concerning the interaction of early New England (1620-1852) with the wider Atlantic world.”
“Salem Witch Judge upends popular stereotypes about Puritans...LaPlante’s touching biography of Samuel Sewall...seems hauntingly familiar. Beneath the sensational title is a figure more familiar than we realize.”
--New York Times Book Review
“Compelling...Fascinating...Salem Witch Judge offers an intriguing journey into a world as far away as colonial America — and yet at the same time as close as the human heart.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“LaPlante’s splendid biography brings a personal touch to Sewall’s story.”
--Publishers Weekly
“A Highly Recommended Book of 2008.”
--Boston Authors Club Book Awards
“Affectionate and affecting...LaPlante’s portrait of a man whose second act became one of atonement as well as contrition is finely drawn.”
--Philadelphia Inquirer
“The toughest thing in politics is to admit you were wrong and to do something about it. That, remarkably, is what Samuel Sewall did, and in so doing, he fundamentally changed the debate over witchcraft forever. At a time when at least some Americans are arguing that we have to cut back on our civil liberties in the interest of national security, LaPlante’s biography of Sewall profiles an early American politician whose example stands out for its courage and its wisdom.”
—Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts
“Well researched, readable, and engaging...Fascinating...Recommended.”
--Library Journal
“Insightful...Vivid...A reformative, assenting spin on Salem’s hellfire and brimstone history.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“Sympathetic and richly detailed.”
--Boston Globe
“Eve LaPlante recounts the life of her ancestor lovingly, but meticulously. In the process, she expertly guides us through the religious life of colonial New England, from well before the 1692 Salem witchcraft episode to long after Samuel Sewall’s somber reflections on — and his apology for — his role in that hysteria. LaPlante also reveals the ever enlarging magnanimity of Sewall’s spirit, specifically with respect to slaves, Native Americans, and women. His life — and her book — deserve our total and grateful attention.”
—Edwin S. Gaustad, Professor Emeritus, U. Cal., Riverside, author of The Religious History of America
“An incredible look at a man who was a pioneer in the forming of the American consciousness. Eve’s view of Samuel’s morality is a reminder to modern day America of how this great nation was formed.”
—Jeremy Sewell, chef/owner of Lineage Restaurant
“Judge Sewall is one of the great public figures of pre-revolutionary America, and his ‘confession’ for his part in the Salem witch trials remains a high and all-too-rare example of public contrition. His example is pertinent to our times.”
—Peter J. Gomes, author of The Good Book
ORDER NOW at:
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IndieBound
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson,
the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
In November 1637, Anne Hutchinson stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts General Court. The 46-year-old midwife and Puritan leader, pregnant with her sixteenth child, parried their every charge of heresy and sedition. In a period when a woman could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, Hutchinson showed remarkable political power, prompting Governor John Winthrop to deride her as “this American Jezebel.” LaPlante’s definitive biography captures Hutchinson’s life in all its complexity, presenting a riveting portrait of early America. Moving from Hutchinson’s dramatic courtroom battles to her banishment in Rhode Island, where she became the only woman ever to found an American colony, American Jezebel sheds light on the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech.
Featured on NPR’s “The Connection,” Comcast’s “Nitebeat,” and WCVB-TV’s “Chronicle.”
“A Best Nonfiction Book of 2004.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“Fast-paced and elegant...A first-rate biography.”
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
“To all those teachers around the country who ask me: What true heroes can I tell my students about? I would reply: Tell them about Anne Hutchinson. And read Eve LaPlante’s biography of her to make her and her courage come alive.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
“A stunning book, exquisitely written, that fills in a crucial piece of American history. Founding mother Anne Hutchinson is a woman everyone will want to — and should — know about.”
—Carol Gilligan, author of In A Different Voice
“LaPlante, the master of biography as thriller, tells a familiar story with a novelist’s panache...An enthralling narrative.”
--New York Sun
“Valiant and remarkably successful...LaPlante is particularly good on the sexual mores of the Puritans.”
—Laura Miller, Salon
“Fascinating...Electric...A rare and charming glimpse into the pleasures of a historian’s detective work.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“What makes American Jezebel so extraordinary is how LaPlante enables Hutchinson to come alive through her own words...LaPlante’s vivid account...renders her subject not as simple saint or sinner, but as a textured human being.”
—Ted Anthony, Canadian Press
“Well worth reading...Anne Hutchinson is among the most-neglected, most important figures in United States history.”
—Nick Gillespie, Reason
“Drawing on a staggering amount of historical detail, 12th-generation descendant Eve LaPlante plots her forebear’s downfall with the vivid immediacy of a novel.”
--BookPage
“LaPlante paints a fascinating portrait of this complex mother of 15 and...deftly depicts the gritty world of colonial New England.”
--Booklist
“A powerful biography of a woman who refused to still her voice.”
--Dallas Morning News
“I feel even better about having pardoned Anne Hutchinson! This terrific book also carried with it a message for today. America faces the same question the Bay Colony faced: liberty versus security. Let’s hope the lessons of Hutchinson's banishment are not lost on those entrusted with ensuring we are both strong and free.”
—Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts
“New England’s foremother and Harvard's midwife is here rescued from Puritan obscurity and reintroduced to 21st-century America. Anne Hutchinson’s passionate, nonconformist intelligence makes her the most significant woman in pre-Revolutionary America.”
—Peter J. Gomes, Harvard, author of The Good Life
“American Jezebel offers a spirited biography of a stirring figure who pushed the limits of Puritan dissent and paid heavily for it. Hutchinson’s story has often served as an emblem by which to measure the public voices of women in America, and LaPlante's rendering shows how deeply resonant that history remains.”
—Leigh Schmidt, coauthor, A Religious History of America
“This vivid and richly documented book tells the nearly incredible story of a woman who managed, in a male-dominated, religion-obsessed world, to shape the future of New England and New York.”
—Susan Quinn, author of Marie Curie: A Life
“Dazzling...Splendid.”
—Book-of-the-Month Club
“Powerful characters, a compelling tale, and a strong narrative writer in LaPlante...[This] fascinating book deserves wide reading. It shows religious zealotry in an American context...from the inside out.”
--Boston Globe
“Eve LaPlante throws us into the action and weaves us carefully into Hutchinson’s world in England, Boston, Rhode Island, and New York...Finally, an author has given us a meticulously-researched guided tour with maps...In this book the early 1600s come alive...[with their] living habits and the obsession with religion. Thank you, LaPlante, for clarifying the long civic and church trials of Anne Hutchinson, making them lively and readable.”
—The Friends of Anne Hutchinson, Portsmouth, RI
ORDER NOW at:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
In November 1637, Anne Hutchinson stood before forty male judges of the Massachusetts General Court. The 46-year-old midwife and Puritan leader, pregnant with her sixteenth child, parried their every charge of heresy and sedition. In a period when a woman could not vote, hold public office, or teach outside the home, Hutchinson showed remarkable political power, prompting Governor John Winthrop to deride her as “this American Jezebel.” LaPlante’s definitive biography captures Hutchinson’s life in all its complexity, presenting a riveting portrait of early America. Moving from Hutchinson’s dramatic courtroom battles to her banishment in Rhode Island, where she became the only woman ever to found an American colony, American Jezebel sheds light on the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech.
Featured on NPR’s “The Connection,” Comcast’s “Nitebeat,” and WCVB-TV’s “Chronicle.”
“A Best Nonfiction Book of 2004.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“Fast-paced and elegant...A first-rate biography.”
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
“To all those teachers around the country who ask me: What true heroes can I tell my students about? I would reply: Tell them about Anne Hutchinson. And read Eve LaPlante’s biography of her to make her and her courage come alive.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States
“A stunning book, exquisitely written, that fills in a crucial piece of American history. Founding mother Anne Hutchinson is a woman everyone will want to — and should — know about.”
—Carol Gilligan, author of In A Different Voice
“LaPlante, the master of biography as thriller, tells a familiar story with a novelist’s panache...An enthralling narrative.”
--New York Sun
“Valiant and remarkably successful...LaPlante is particularly good on the sexual mores of the Puritans.”
—Laura Miller, Salon
“Fascinating...Electric...A rare and charming glimpse into the pleasures of a historian’s detective work.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“What makes American Jezebel so extraordinary is how LaPlante enables Hutchinson to come alive through her own words...LaPlante’s vivid account...renders her subject not as simple saint or sinner, but as a textured human being.”
—Ted Anthony, Canadian Press
“Well worth reading...Anne Hutchinson is among the most-neglected, most important figures in United States history.”
—Nick Gillespie, Reason
“Drawing on a staggering amount of historical detail, 12th-generation descendant Eve LaPlante plots her forebear’s downfall with the vivid immediacy of a novel.”
--BookPage
“LaPlante paints a fascinating portrait of this complex mother of 15 and...deftly depicts the gritty world of colonial New England.”
--Booklist
“A powerful biography of a woman who refused to still her voice.”
--Dallas Morning News
“I feel even better about having pardoned Anne Hutchinson! This terrific book also carried with it a message for today. America faces the same question the Bay Colony faced: liberty versus security. Let’s hope the lessons of Hutchinson's banishment are not lost on those entrusted with ensuring we are both strong and free.”
—Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts
“New England’s foremother and Harvard's midwife is here rescued from Puritan obscurity and reintroduced to 21st-century America. Anne Hutchinson’s passionate, nonconformist intelligence makes her the most significant woman in pre-Revolutionary America.”
—Peter J. Gomes, Harvard, author of The Good Life
“American Jezebel offers a spirited biography of a stirring figure who pushed the limits of Puritan dissent and paid heavily for it. Hutchinson’s story has often served as an emblem by which to measure the public voices of women in America, and LaPlante's rendering shows how deeply resonant that history remains.”
—Leigh Schmidt, coauthor, A Religious History of America
“This vivid and richly documented book tells the nearly incredible story of a woman who managed, in a male-dominated, religion-obsessed world, to shape the future of New England and New York.”
—Susan Quinn, author of Marie Curie: A Life
“Dazzling...Splendid.”
—Book-of-the-Month Club
“Powerful characters, a compelling tale, and a strong narrative writer in LaPlante...[This] fascinating book deserves wide reading. It shows religious zealotry in an American context...from the inside out.”
--Boston Globe
“Eve LaPlante throws us into the action and weaves us carefully into Hutchinson’s world in England, Boston, Rhode Island, and New York...Finally, an author has given us a meticulously-researched guided tour with maps...In this book the early 1600s come alive...[with their] living habits and the obsession with religion. Thank you, LaPlante, for clarifying the long civic and church trials of Anne Hutchinson, making them lively and readable.”
—The Friends of Anne Hutchinson, Portsmouth, RI
ORDER NOW at:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon
Seized is a narrative portrait of a common form of epilepsy that can alter personality — temporal lobe epilepsy, or TLE, which crosses the traditional boundaries between neurology and psychology, brain and mind. The book profiles brain experts and TLE patients, both ordinary and famous, including van Gogh, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, and Lewis Carroll, who turned some of his seizure states into Alice’s “adventures” in Wonderland.
Featured on NPR’s Morning Edition with Neal Conan and in The New York Times and Newsweek.
“A major study...The implications for psychiatry are staggering.”
--Publishers Weekly
“In this fascinating account of medical research, LaPlante shows how a brain scar may cause bizarre aggressive or sexual behavior—and works of profound creative imagination.”
—Howard Gardner
“Thoughtful...Highly recommended.”
--Library Journal, starred review
“Four stars.”
--Los Angeles Times
“LaPlante’s descriptions of the human brain are wonderfully concrete, her historical research is well presented, and her empathy for TLE’s victims is clear.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“Controversial.”
--Newsweek
“Compelling, engrossing, and intriguing.”
--Neurology Bulletin
ORDER NOW at:
Amazon
Seized is a narrative portrait of a common form of epilepsy that can alter personality — temporal lobe epilepsy, or TLE, which crosses the traditional boundaries between neurology and psychology, brain and mind. The book profiles brain experts and TLE patients, both ordinary and famous, including van Gogh, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, and Lewis Carroll, who turned some of his seizure states into Alice’s “adventures” in Wonderland.
Featured on NPR’s Morning Edition with Neal Conan and in The New York Times and Newsweek.
“A major study...The implications for psychiatry are staggering.”
--Publishers Weekly
“In this fascinating account of medical research, LaPlante shows how a brain scar may cause bizarre aggressive or sexual behavior—and works of profound creative imagination.”
—Howard Gardner
“Thoughtful...Highly recommended.”
--Library Journal, starred review
“Four stars.”
--Los Angeles Times
“LaPlante’s descriptions of the human brain are wonderfully concrete, her historical research is well presented, and her empathy for TLE’s victims is clear.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“Controversial.”
--Newsweek
“Compelling, engrossing, and intriguing.”
--Neurology Bulletin
ORDER NOW at:
Amazon
Essays, Articles, Other Publications
The introduction to American Jezebel (Harper, 2004) is reprinted in Shaun O’Connell’s new anthology, Boston: Voices and Visions (University of Massachusetts, 2010). O’Connell writes, “Just as Hawthorne dug into the dark history of his ancestry, which reached back both to the original Boston settlement of the 1630s and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s, so too did LaPlante trace family members who were rooted in the same eras...Hawthorne took shame upon himself for the misdeeds of his Puritan ancestors, and LaPlante offers praise for her forebears who testified against Puritan repression. As her prefaces to these biographies, a kind of spiritual autobiography, show, Anne Hutchinson and Samuel Sewall were not the dark Puritans many imagined them to be. They remain living presences, even models of rectitude, into the twenty-first century.”
LaPlante’s essay “18,260 Breakfasts,” from Why I’m Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes (Penguin, 2006), was reprinted in The Aims of Argument, a Rhetorics textbook edited by Timothy Crusius and Carolyn Channell (McGraw-Hill, 2008, 2010).
LaPlante’s articles have also appeared in the following periodicals and online publications:
The Atlantic Monthly
“The Riddle of TLE.” Nov. 1988 (medicine)
Beliefnet.com
“Out of Sight, Out of History.” Jul. 2, 2004 (Anne Hutchinson essay)
The Boston Globe
“Born to Party.” Nov. 2, 2008 (Ideas cover story on biopolitics)
“The Opposite of Thanksgiving.” Nov. 18, 2007 (Ideas cover story on Puritan thanksgivings)
“A Heretic’s Overdue Honor.” Sep. 7, 2005 (op-ed on Anne Hutchinson)
“First Steps at Speedskating.” Feb. 19, 2004
“Visiting ‘The Dead’ in Dublin.” Jan. 20, 2002 (travel)
“What’s in a Name?” Jan. 18, 1994
“St. John: Almost Private Isle.” Jan. 27, 1991 (travel)
“Exile of a Polish Revolutionary.” Apr. 7, 1984
Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
“A Wealth of Knowledge.” Oct. 12, 1986 (first major-magazine profile of economist Larry Summers, who went on to run the U.S. Treasury, Harvard University, and the White House National Economic Council)
Boston Herald Sunday Magazine
“Dying Words: The Irish Language.” Feb. 10, 1985 (cover story)
Boston Magazine
“Rattle & Strum.” Nov. 2000 (music)
“Autumn Leavings: Sweet Pickings.” Oct. 2000 (travel)
“Pay Dirt.” Sep. 2000 (profile of Maine potato farmer)
“Edible Complex.” Sep. 2000 (art)
“Flour Power.” Sep. 1999 (art)
“The Secret Life of Language: High School Semiotics.” Nov. 1983 (education)
BrainChild
“Divorce: The Damage (Not) Done.” Spring 2002 (essay/book review)
Country Living
“Alyson’s Orchard.” Sep. 2002 (travel)
“Hidden Cape Ann.” Sep. 2000 (travel)
“Seeking Charlotte and Wilbur.” Sep. 1999 (travel)
Gourmet
“Good Living: Dead Set in Dublin.” Dec. 2002 (travel)
“Still Life With Jelly.” Jan. 2002 (art)
Hartford Courant
“The University That Misogyny Built.” Jan. 29, 2005 (op-ed on Anne Hutchinson); reprinted in Anchorage Daily News, Canton (OH) Repository, South Coast (MA) Today, and West Hawaii Today
Harvard Magazine
“Illinois Jacquet: A lot of Lovin’ in Front.” Sep./Oct. 1983 (music)
History Magazine
“A Judge of Character: The Reformation of a Salem Witch Judge.” Oct. 2011 (on Samuel Sewall)
Ladies’ Home Journal
“The Baby-sitter.” Mar. 1998
The New York Times
“Our Lady of the Hutch.” Sep. 18, 2004 (op-ed on Anne Hutchinson)
“Keeping the Landscape Hurdle-Free: Walking in Ireland.” Jul. 8, 2001 (travel)
“Bread, Tea, and Prayer.” Apr. 7, 1996 (travel)
Parents
“The Perfect Family Size.” Jul. 1998
Working Woman
“Five Career Ruts You Can’t Afford.” Nov. 1987
Yankee
“C.B. Fisk’s Monumental Creations.” Dec. 1985 (music)