Martha Meredith Read (1773 – March 1816) was an American novelist and feminist author. She published two novels and a feminist tract, "A Second Vindication of the Rights of Women" (1801).
Martha Meredith Read | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1773  Philadelphia |
| Died | March 1816 (aged 42–43) Harrisburg |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse(s) | John Read |
| Children | John M. Read |
| Parent(s) |
|
Life and career
editMartha Meredith Read was born in 1773 in Philadelphia, the eldest daughter of Samuel Meredith and Margaret Cadwalader Meredith. In 1816 she married John Read. They had five children, including John M. Read.[1]
In both of Read's novels, a virtuous teenage female protagonist suffers various tribulations in Philadelphia before triumph and marriage.
Monima, or the Beggar Girl (1802) is set in 1790s Philadelphia. A teenage Monima Fontanbleu must care for her elderly father, once a planter in Saint Domingo, and suffers from a difficulty to find work and the plotting of her former employer.[2] The downfall of proud and wealthy characters in this novel might have been inspired by Federalist relatives of Read who lost influence upon the election of Thomas Jefferson.[3]
Margaretta; or, the Intricacies of the Heart (1807) begins in Elkton, Maryland but its protagonist soon relocates to Philadelphia, then Santo Domingo, and finally England. She is the subject to the attention of a pair of rakes, imprisoned on a plantation, and nearly marries a man whom she discovers is her own biological father.[4]
The title of her essay "A Second Vindication of the Rights of Women" (1801) echoes Mary Wollstonecraft's seminal A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and its content concurs with much of Wollstonecraft's work. Only two sections of her essay survive. [2]
Her first novel, parts of her second novel, and "Vindication" were all serialized in Isaac Ralston's short-lived newspaper The Ladies' Monitor.[2]
Martha Meredith Read died in March 1816 in Harrisburg.
Bibliography
edit- Monima, or the Beggar Girl (1802)
- Margaretta; or, the Intricacies of the Heart (1807)
References
edit- ^ American Historical Company; National Americana Society; American Historical Society (1909). Americana. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. New York : National Americana Society.
- ^ a b c Fichtelberg, Joseph (1997). "Friendless in Philadelphia: The Feminist Critique of Martha Meredith Read". Early American Literature. 32 (3): 205–221. ISSN 0012-8163. JSTOR 25057094.
- ^ Faherty, Duncan (2024-01-16). The Haitian Revolution in the Early Republic of Letters. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-288915-7.
- ^ Fichtelberg, Joseph (1998). "Heart-felt Verities: The Feminism of Martha Meredith Read". Legacy. 15 (2): 125–138. ISSN 0748-4321. JSTOR 25679268.