Bradford's "Charlotte Cushman" (1925/1932)

Bradford's "Charlotte Cushman" (1925/1932)

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Death

Reputation

In his biography Biography and the Human Heart (1932), Bradford republished the article (The North American Review, Vol. 221, No. 827 (Jun. - Aug., 1925)) as a chapter. Other biographical chapters covered Walt Whitman or Henry Longfellow, for instance.

The North American Review, Vol. 221, No. 827 (Jun. - Aug., 1925):

• account of her life, upbringing in wealthy family and neighborhood
• transatlantic fame
• describes her as very social
• mentions Stillman’s account (does not mention source, but quotes in Stillman’s biography); contrasts Stillman’s analysis with his own observations from letters (at least he mentions letters once, no sources given!), performances, public perception, and his intuition?; he also uses phrases such as “She used to say” (693)
• considers Stillman's to be too one-sided and not balanced enough; "There is little evidence besides Stillman’s to support this extreme view" (694-695) mentions Fields’s account here ("remark" --> diary, letters?); "her great moral qualities" (697); her mentions of God taken as evidence
• interestingly, he does NOT mention her relationships to other woman but decided to mention a "young man from an excellent family" that she became associated with romantically; he even mentions her "prospective mother in law" (693)
• describes her as passionate, impulsive, ambitious
• he doesn’t think that she "sighed for a complete transference to the other sex" (696) and now wait for the explanation: it was a perfect combination to benefit from "masculine energy and feminine privileges" (696)
• Mrs Carlyle mentioned concerning an analysis of CC’s character
• "her eminent and unfailing loyalty is denied by no one" (697) positive perspective on what Stillman describes opposing views

Bradford, Gamaliel, 1863-1932

The North American Review

1925

Reference

University of Northern Iowa, US

42.514099

-92.4629133