Academics

Bernice E. Gallagher
Illinois Women Novelists in the Nineteenth Century:  An Analysis and Annotated Bibliography
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994

This book is an analysis and annotated bibliography of a selected group of
novels written by Illinois women and published between 1854 and 1893.
These novels were chosen for inclusion in a collection of work that was
written by women and exhibited in the American section of the Woman's
Building Library at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  The novels are analyzed in Part 1 of this book, and their significance within
the larger context of American literary history is discussed; Part 2 contains descriptive bibliographical material.  The novels are of special importance because they constitute part of the first coherent collection assembled in America of works written, gathered, and cataloged by women.  Many of these books have been undervalued and, by extension, forgotten, but close examination shows them to be much richer, more complex, and, therefore, more important than previously assumed.  They are full of
surprises and in many instances provide startling social critiques.