All That Makes Life Bright: The Life and Love of Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Josi S. Kilpack

Overview

When Harriet Beecher marries Calvin Stowe on January 6, 1836, she is sure her future will be filled romance, eventually a family, and continued opportunities to develop as a writer. Her husband Calvin is completely supportive and said she must be a literary woman. Harriet's sister, Catharine, worries she will lose her identity in marriage, but she is determined to preserve her independent spirit. Deeply religious, she strongly believes God has called her to fulfill the roles of wife and writer and will help her accomplish everything she was born to do.

Two months after her wedding Harriet discovers she is pregnant just as Calvin prepares to leave for a European business trip. Alone, Harriet is overwhelmed-being a wife has been harder than she thought and being an expectant mother feels like living another woman's life. Knowing that part of Calvin still cherishes the memory of his first wife, Harriet begins to question her place in her husband's heart and yearns for his return; his letters are no substitute for having him home. When Calvin returns, however, nothing seems to have turned out as planned.

Struggling to balance the demands of motherhood with her passion for writing and her desire to be a part of the social change in Ohio, Harriet works to build a life with her beloved Calvin despite differing temperaments and expectations.

Can their love endure, especially after "I do"? Can she recapture the first blush of new love and find the true beauty in her marriage?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629723419
Publisher:	Shadow Mountain Publishing
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Series:	Proper Romance Historical Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Josi S. Kilpack is the author of twenty-five novels, including A Culinary Mystery series and several titles in A Proper Romance series and A Historical Proper Romance series. Her novel A Heart Revealed was a 2015 Publishers Weekly Best Romance Book of the Year. She and her husband, Lee, are the parents to four children.

Read an Excerpt

"I want to marry Calvin. I want to be his partner, and I want to be a mother," Hattie said.

"And waste your gifts-I know," Catharine said.

Hattie turned around to face her sister, struck by the caustic reply despite having braced herself for it. "Do you truly believe that becoming a wife and mother puts to waste what God has given me? Have we not taught any number of young women to embrace their God-given roles?"

"Because a husband and children are all they have to look toward for security," Catharine said.

"Are you certain that you are not simply envious that I am to have those roles after all?"
Catharine's neck turned red, and her jaw tightened. "I envy nothing you have, Hattie, except for the working of your mind. I am disappointed that you are giving up your writing, your potential, and your influence for what any other woman without such intellect and education could do in your place."

"I am not giving up any of those things! Mr. Stowe is proud of what I have accomplished already and promises to help me meet my potential, not hinder my progression."

Catharine was shaking her head before Hattie finished. "There is boundless irony in such a promise," she said, raising a hand to massage her temple. "The very things so attractive to him will be lost, mark my words."

"They will not."

Editorial Reviews

07/10/2017
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) wrote more than 30 books, including the influential and perennially bestselling abolitionist work Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and also bore seven children. She and Calvin Stowe were married for 50 years. Kilpack, inaugurating a romance series about the lives of famous women writers, looks at the early years of their marriage, when they had three children in two years and Harriet was barely established as a writer. The expectations for a woman in that day and age did not include serious intellectual work, and in Kilpack’s telling, both Harriet and Calvin must learn to take her career seriously in order to make their marriage work. Kilpack’s depiction of the challenges of juggling household management, childcare, and pen is convincing and touching, and her research is solid (and well-explained in the endnotes), but her prose is rather flat, side characters are standard types, and there is a tendency to repeat information. That said, as an examination of how much labor domesticity really involves, the book is surprisingly passionate—and entertaining. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"In this “Proper Romance,” part of a series featuring famous authors, the focus is on a young couple finding their path through the difficult first years of marriage, merging their very different expectations to build a solid partnership. Written in a simple and straightforward style, the novel also stresses Harriet’s religious conviction and anti-slavery beliefs. This is a realistic portrayal of attitudes and expectations of the times, making it even more remarkable that Harriet Beecher Stowe accomplished all that she did."

Historical Novel Society

"A thought-provoking and well-written read...Kilpack delivers another powerful historical romance. Meticulously researched...Will deeply resonate with readers. In fact, the narrative is astonishingly relevant for this day. Highly recommended."

Compass Book Ratings

"In her latest marvelously engaging historical novel, Kilpack writes with great insight and superb sensitivity about the ways in which Harriet and Calvin struggled to achieve a marriage that works for both of them. At the same time, Kilpack deftly demonstrates how Harriet's early married years acted as a sort of literary petri dish in which she refined her own writing skills while also defining her thoughts on the issue of slavery, ultimately leading her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel which played a major role in advancing the abolitionist cause not just in the United States but around the world. An excellent introduction to the early life and times of one of nineteenth-century America’s most fascinating and influential women."  

starred review Booklist

"This polished, warmly narrated audio is a true delight. Kilpack's book is the fictionalized account of Harriet 'Hattie' Beecher Stowe's journey from a new bride to a famous author and abolitionist, set against the vibrantly rendered backdrop of turbulent nineteenth-century struggles. Kilpack gets at the heart of interpersonal relationships, and the story's main players feel very much alive. Since she's also a historical figure, Hattie's trajectory is already more or less known, but Kilpack so skilfully weaves the path between Hattie's introduction as an inward-looking young woman to the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin that knowing the eventual outcome takes nothing whatsoever away from the journey. The book's overarching theme is the relationship between societal expectations and individual will, and what happens when the two are deeply at odds--questions that still pervade both bedrooms and boardrooms today. Fascinating, too, is the still-relevant contrast between Hattie's struggle for personal freedom from the rigors of household work, and the environment in which she experiences this struggle--one in which African Americans remain in literal shackles. All That Makes Life Bright is about making marriage work in the face of challenges like a desire for personal freedom. It is a romance with broad appeal."

Foreword Reviews

"Polished, warmly narrated...a true delight. Kilpack gets at the heart of interpersonal relationships, and the story's main players feel very much alive...Kilpack skillfully weaves the path between Hattie's introduction as an inward-looking young woman to the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Fascinating, too, is the still-relevant contrast between Hattie's struggle for personal freedom from the rigors of household work, and the environment in which she experiences this struggle—one in which African Americans remain in literal shackles.  All That Makes Life Bright is about making marriage work in the face of challenges like the desire for personal freedom. It is a romance with broad appeal."

Foreword Reviews Audiobooks