Civil War newspapers were like early book clubs - everyone read the same thing
(Today your book club can zoom with authors - see my Special Offer below.)
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a turning point novel that everyone read together. It first appeared as a 40-week serial in "The National Era," an abolitionist periodical, starting with the June 5, 1851, issue. Due to popular demand, the author Harriett Beecher Stowe expanded her story substantially.
The original cover
Published in two volumes because the story was still being serialized in the newspaper, the publisher added illustrations. On its first day as a book it sold 3000 copies; in the first year, 300,000 copies sold in the U.S.
Uncle Tom's Cabin sold equally well in Britain, reaching sales over 1.5 million copies. By 1857 it was translated into 20 languages. In 1901 it became the first American novel translated into Chinese.
it was the first book I read as I began to write Faith on the Mall.
When Lincoln met Harriett Beecher Stowe, he reportedly said: "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."
Harriett Beecher Stowe was an educator, author, and abolitionist in Maine who based her novel on published accounts of enslaved people and on interviews. Her novel's emotionally stirring description of a runaway enslaved mother and child was triggered in part by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The law expanded enforcement efforts of Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, which required the return of escaped slaves. The law mandated that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate, which greatly deepened animosity in the North to slavery.
There is power in everyone reading the same thing
Today we are so fractured...
...into our individual truths, that no wonder there is a small movement for "everyone to read the same thing" as a way to grow understanding in a group or community.
Seattle Reads is a city-wide book group, where people are encouraged to read and discuss the same book. Originally called in 1998, “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” it was the first “One Book, One City” program. The concept has spread across all 50 states and even internationally.
Looking for your next good read? Check out the Seattle Reads list from the past 25 years.
The unstoppable tradition of the book club
"As long as there have been books, there have been people gathering to discuss them." The unstoppable tradition of the book club | MPR News
If you're one of the five million Americans in a book club, click on the above article to learn more about the role of women in founding them. From the oldest surviving group dating to 1877, the Women's Reading Club of Mattoon, to the Book of the Month Club begun almost a hundred years ago, to Oprah's Book Club, to Mark Zuckerberg's "Year of Books," the impetus for books - and hence ideas - to be shared goes on.
Why Faith on the Mall is an excellent choice for your book club
Faith on the Mall has received five stars and the "Highly Recommended" award of excellence from The Historical Fiction Company
"It takes a skilled writer to transform history into art by placing humanity's flesh and blood onto a factual skeleton ... Ann Beltran gives mid-19th century America this treatment in Faith on the Mall, a novel about three siblings living on the National Mall ... This is an excellent novel whose biggest strengths are its prose and its character analysis. It will be of in interest to anyone who enjoys early American history with a sentimental touch."
