A Rhode Island Original

Frances Harriet Whipple (1805-1878) was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, She gained early recognition for her poems that appeared in local papers, and in 1829 published The Original, establishing herself as one of America's first female editors. Almost a decade later she wrote one of the few published narratives about a free black woman, The Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge. In her middle years, Whipple turned to spiritualism, leaving Providence to write for numerous spiritualist publications in New York City. By this time she had married and divorced Charles Green - an unusual step for a woman in the mid-nineteenth century. Whipple moved from the East Coast to California in 1861. She served briefly on the board of the first female typographical union in San Francisco and at the age of fifty-seven married her second husband, a gold miner who had been a California assemblyman and brother of the state's second governor. O'Dowd, deftly contextualizing her analysis of Whipple's key works in nineteenth century politics and culture, has created a fascinating portrait of a woman well ahead of her time.