Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

New York: European Publishing Co, 1898. First Edition. hardcover. Very good. 1st edition. Signed by Stanton, in ink, on the endpaper. Rare signed (RBH says no signed copies at auction, and logs only one signed copy sold in the trade and that was 37 years ago). Original cloth, 5 pinholes to title (whatever was pinned there is now gone), small bookplate, rubbing to the extremities else a bright, very good copy. Her signature is in the wavering hand of the period (she was 86), but it is undeniably authentic, and dated (in another hand) “Aug 29–‘01” a year before she died. Cloth case. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a towering figure in the American women's suffrage (truncated) movement, whose intellectual leadership and strategic vision proved indispensable to the fight for women's voting rights. Stanton was the organizer and leader of the 1848 women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, the first such convention in the U.S. and the birth of the American women's movement. Her authorship of the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, boldly proclaimed that "all men and women are created equal" and established a philosophical framework for women's equality that would guide the movement for decades. Beyond suffrage, Stanton advocated for comprehensive reforms in women's legal status, challenging patriarchal marriage laws, promoting women's education, and addressing economic independence. Her 50-year partnership with Susan B. Anthony created a powerful alliance that combined Stanton's radical thinking and powerful writing with Anthony's organizational skills and public speaking abilities. Though she did not live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, Stanton's groundbreaking work laid the essential foundation for this historic achievement. (Inventory #: 928)