ISSUE NUMBER THREE, or, STRONG WOMEN

Issue Number 3 of Society Nineteen interviews three extraordinary writers whose works center on three extraordinary women: April Bernard talks about her novel Miss Fuller, Jennifer O'Grady reflects on her play Charlotte's Letters, and Thomas van Essen chats with us about his novel The Center of the World. Though the central woman of van Essen's book is the mythological Helen, all three works are rooted in historical personages and places. Through them, we glimpse Margaret Fuller and a fast-changing America, British writer Elizabeth Gaskell struggling to understand the experiences of her late friend Charlotte Bronte in Brussels, and J.M.W. Turner at Petworth House in the 1830s, just as British sensibility was beginning its dramatic pivot toward that we know as "Victorian." All three writers ground their work in scrupulous research, yet also use the power of imagery and language to the fullest. We are honored to share their perspectives here. In addition to the three interviews, we're pleased to share Linda Gordon Hengerer's Nineteen List of fierce fictional female sleuths and to show Joshua North-Shea's portraits of redoubtable American women born in the 19th century. —SF