Reviewed by Desirée Henderson | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 66.1

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Reviewed by Desirée Henderson | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 66.1 | The History Cooperative

Reviews of Books

Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women. By Marion Rust. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. 328 pages. $59.95 (cloth), $24.95 (paper).
Reviewed by Desirée Henderson, University of Texas, Arlington
A close study of a single author may appear out of sync with early American scholarship, dominated by such weighty concepts as empire, the Atlantic world, revolution, and rights. Not so when that author is Susanna Rowson, whose life and works necessarily intersect with some of the defining preoccupations of eighteenth-century literary studies: transatlanticism, feminism, performance, sentiment, print culture, and, of course, the novel. Marion Rust's richly researched and beautifully illustrated Prodigal Daughters places Rowson squarely in the midst of these critical conversations and demonstrates that her extensive body of writing is invaluable to interpretations of both the political realities and the literary fantasies surrounding women in the new nation.	1
Unlike women writers such as Catharine Macaulay, Mercy Otis Warren, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, and Deborah Sampson, who have been the subjects of recent book-length studies but remain somewhat obscure, Rowson is a well-known figure in early national literature. Those of us who frequently teach and write about her best-selling novel Charlotte Temple may find it hard to believe that it has been just over twenty years since the novel was recovered for a contemporary readership.¹ However, this single novel is an inadequate basis for understanding Rowson's prolific literary career in multiple genres. Rust avoids placing Charlotte Temple at the center of Rowson's oeuvre and more accurately situates it in a lifetime committed to literary and public pursuits. Rust states, "Gone, then, are the days when every study of Rowson must begin with an apology for the quality of the work" (30), but she is only partially correct. While Charlotte Temple has achieved canonical status, the rest of Rowson's writing remains sadly neglected. Rowson deserves, and has finally received in Prodigal Daughters, an overarching analysis that takes account of the scope and significance of her many creative endeavors.	. . .

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