ABSTRACT
Marietta Holley (1836-1926), an unmarried champion of women’s suffrage who wrote under the name of “Josiah Allen’s Wife,” pub lished twenty-one volumes of humorous Samantha Allen stories and travel narratives, beginning in 1873 with My Adventures and Betsey B ob b efs-published by the American Publishing Company, which had successfully merchandized Twain’s volumes by door-to-door sub scription sales. As a “wimmin’s rights” reformer, Holley stood for equality of the sexes and equal rights for all, but stories like Jenette Finster’s adhere to Victorian humorous stereotypes. The hero, Joe, is a little boy mothered and controlled by the long-suffering Jenette. Al though Holley seldom left her home in upstate New York, the pe ripatetic Samantha applied her critical eye to the social issues of slav ery in the South and meanness and social irresponsibility in a wide variety of national and even international situations.
