In her upcoming book, “E.D.E.N. Southworth’s Hidden Hand: The Untold Story of America’s Famous Forgotten Nineteenth-Century Author,” Rose Neal, who has a Ph.D. in English, revives the legacy of a now-obscure novelist who was once a household name.
Born in 1819, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte, Southworth — better known by her initials, E.D.E.N. — was one of the most prolific and widely read American writers of the 19th century.
Christened with a long name, Southworth once joked: “When I was born, my family was too poor to give anything else, so they gave me all those names.”
She would later shorten it to the distinctive E.D.E.N., under which she built her literary empire.
With more novels to her name than Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain combined, Southworth once captivated audiences with feisty heroines who rode horses, fired pistols, and even became sea captains.
Her most famous novel, “The Hidden Hand,” was so popular that readers named their daughters after its fearless protagonist, Capitola.
“Despite being one of the most beloved and well-known writers of the 19th century, as domestic sensational fiction declined in popularity, Southworth was entirely forgotten, as was an entire generation of women writers,” Neal writes. “For Southworth, it was partly because she had done so well at hiding her own progressive ideas. Nevertheless, she should be rediscovered and given her rightful place in American history.”
Southworth’s fiction tackled issues that were often considered taboo, including domestic violence, poverty and capital punishment.
Although she was raised in a slave-owning family, she wrote for The National Era, an abolitionist magazine, and encouraged her longtime friend Harriet Beecher Stowe to publish “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
She also supported the early women’s rights movement and advocated for better education and living conditions for those in poverty.
Neal’s journey to uncover Southworth’s story began unexpectedly as she pursued her master’s degree. She asked her colleagues whether they were familiar with this author she had unearthed. “They had never heard of Southworth or any of her novels,” she writes.
“How did a novelist as popular as Southworth slip into the dustbin of history?” she wonders.
With this biography, Neal pieces together Southworth’s story through her novels, letters and other documents, setting the record straight on a woman whose influence was far greater than history has acknowledged. Like her heroines, Southworth was bold, determined and ahead of her time.
The book comes out in May and is available for pre-order.
