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↑ (Courtesy of Western Historical Manuscript Collection) Laura Redden Searing (1839 - 1923)Laura Redden Searing was deaf, but her chief obstacle as a journalist wasn’t her disability; it was her gender. Newspapers were just emerging as middle-class commodities when Searing was born, and the hugely popular penny press wasn’t the place for a lady. When her writing career began, in the early years of the Civil War, Searing had to adopt a man’s name to be heard. Much of the work that comprises Searing’s contribution to the National Women and Media Collection was published under the pseudonym Howard Glyndon. As a correspondent for the St. Louis Republican, Searing was sent to Washington, D.C., where she covered — and socialized with — Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and other national leaders. Searing eventually became better known as a poet than a journalist. The contents of the four dust-covered boxes of material related to her career, including photos, handwritten manuscripts, personal correspondence and poems, offer a first-hand glimpse of American history. On Aug. 29, 1864, Abraham Lincoln gave his personal approval to Searing’s compilation, “Idylls of Battle,” saying he found all of the poems “patriotic and some very pretty.” Less than two months later, on Nov. 10, 1864, Grant wrote to Searing, mentioning aspects of her family life and encouraging her work on an upcoming book. He closed the letter with “Your friend, Ulysses S. Grant.” In another handwritten note, Alexander Graham Bell agrees to put $500 toward the publication of one of Searing’s books on Mormons, though it was never published. Searing’s archive also includes handwritten advice from another famous author with a pen name: Mark Twain. Scrawled on worn sheets of parchment, the May 6, 1881, letter, signed by Samuel Clemens, advises Searing on book publishing. |
