I'm currently working on the 4th book in my "Sassy Ladies Series" and have found a kindred soul in Joan, whose series is called "Forgotten Ladies." I've read, enjoyed and highly recommend every one of them (see my Amazon reviews). Her newest release celebrates Vinnie Ream, the Victorian sculptress whose statue of Abraham Lincoln stands in the Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol.
About Joan
When she is not writing in her studio by the sea, Joan lives an 1860s farmhouse stacked to the ceiling with books. In a life full of adventures, she has scaled mountains, chased sheep, and been abandoned on an island for longer than she wants to remember.
An ethnographer, educator, and award-winning
author who loves mentoring writers, Joan blends her love of history, and
romance into eye-opening historical novels about women who shouldn’t be
forgotten and into romantic thrillers under the pen
name, Zara West. She is the author of the award-winning romantic suspense
series The Skin Quartet and the top-selling Write for Success series, and of
multi-award-winning biographical historicals
including THAT DICKINSON GIRL, CENSORED ANGEL, and now PRAIRIE CINDERELLA.
Joan blogs
at JoanKoster.com, American
Civil War Voice, Zara West
Romance, and Zara West’s
Journal and teaches numerous online writing courses.
An Excerpt From PRAIRIE CINDERELLA
The Capitol, Washington City, April 1866
“Ah, this is where you hide out.”
I snap my head up. The woman is a stranger, but
I can tell she hasn’t come to make a purchase or praise my work. Beneath her
fashionable hat, adorned with bunches of fake cherries, she wears the
nose-pinched expression of someone smelling not the rose petal potpourri
discreetly placed around the studio, but the stench of something foul.
She moves along the wall, studying the
medallions on display. “These are yours, Miss Ream?” She glares at me. “You are
Miss Ream, I presume?”
I grab the wet rag hanging on a hook by my work
stand and wipe the clay dust from my fingers. “Vinnie Ream, at your service.
All the works here are mine. And available for purchase.”
She puts on spectacles and peruses my newest
work—the bust of a bare-breasted young woman, which I’ve christened Violet.
The woman straightens. “Heard about you. Had to
see for myself.” She gives me a long stare. “I’m Jane Swisshelm.”
A polite greeting sticks in my throat. Everyone
has heard of the razor-tongued, overly opinionated journalist who gave her all
to the wounded soldiers during the war but then had the distinction of being
fired by both Horace Greeley and the War Department for being too radical in
her news articles.
I curtsy and force out a response. “You are most
welcome to my little studio, Mrs. Swisshelm.”
“Little studio? You’re right here in the
Capitol. That’s an honor deserving of a renowned artist like Clark Mills, not
you. You look to be all of fourteen. But buxom enough, I guess. And all that
hair. No wonder the men are rapturous about you. Be forewarned: I am not so
easily persuaded by a bit of feminine fluff.”
She sails across to my bust of Lincoln and
places her hand on top of the head as if my most important work is nothing more
than a doorpost. “Heard you’re claiming the President himself posed for you?”
How dare this woman accuse me of lying? I bite
out the words, “He did.”
“Well, my good friend, Mary Todd, disagrees.
Says she’s never heard of you.”
“My arrangement was with the President and his
secretary.”
“So you say.” She clasps her hands in front of
her own less-than-generous bosom. “I’m here to tell you to drop the petition
you’re circulating. You have no right to make a marble sculpture of him.”
I should grovel. Pretend to think about her
suggestion. After all, I’m not sure what I am going to do. But I can’t. The
woman reminds me too much of Ma and her dictates. So, I throw back my shoulders
and firm my voice. “You can’t tell me how to pursue my career.”
She comes closer. “Give up the petition, or I’ll
spread the rumor that your obscene woman in the shop window is actually you. A
self-portrait, shall we say.”
“What? Are you blind? That looks nothing like
me. That is a classical pose based on numerous renowned works of art.”
“It is unsuitable for you to show such
nakedness, and an insult to all women. Men do not need their lust stirred by
bared breasts.”
“It is a most appropriate work to be created by
a woman. Why should only men be allowed to sculpt our sex? No one criticizes
them for sculpting nude males.”
Her lips pinch together. “The only reason to
create nudes of either sex is to titillate.”
“The human body is beautiful and wondrous. It
must be. After all, the Lord has modeled a good many people in the nude.”
Swisshelm sneers. “Our good Lord has no place in
this den of obscenity or in this discussion. Mark my words. If you continue the
course you have set for yourself, you will be rebuffed in society.”
“Society, as you call it, doesn’t accept me now—an
upstart girl from the wild prairie who works with her hands. But people who
value excellent artwork support me with their pocketbooks.” Poker-hot anger
overrides my commonsense. “Long after you are gone and your newspaper turned to
dust, Mrs. Swisshelm, my work—nude or dressed—will endure. Do your worst. I’m
going to get that commission.”
To learn more about Jane Swisshelm see my article: “Jane Gray Swisshelm on
Congressional Behavior.”
To learn more about Vinnie Ream see my article “Vinnie Ream on Art and
Nature.”
Vinnie Ream was both celebrated and reviled in her lifetime. She was petite, outgoing, and female. The fact that she wanted to be a sculptress at a time when the art world was dominated by men who believed only European-trained artists were the best is what makes her success more incredible.
Yes, some of her success was due to chance. Because she was born in a log
cabin like him, Abraham Lincoln at the height of the Civil War gave her
permission to sketch and sculpt him during his afternoon naps. After his
assassination, at the age of seventeen, she rose to prominence for her bust of
him done from life. This led to her receiving the first sculpture commission
given by Congress to a woman. Today, her statue of Lincoln stands in the
Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol, where it is often seen during state occasions.
But it was not all chance. Vinnie Ream was an amazingly gifted woman who
despite her lack of training excelled in art. She was also personable and
smart.
Of course, such an accomplishment was questioned. How could a young girl
sculpt the body of man? (Remember this was the Victorian age.) How could a
frontier-raised American, who'd never been to Europe, be any good at sculpture?
How did she get Congress to give her a studio in the Capitol and to vote her
$10,000 plus a $5,000 bonus for Lincoln’s statue?
Naturally rumors flew. Some man did the work for her. She never met Lincoln.
She traded favors with Congressmen to get the commission. Mark Twain went so
far as to call her “the smartest politician of all.” This was to be expected at
the time. What surprised me was that these claims are still made today by
academics who wink and nod when they talk about her. That got me angry and that
is why I wrote this novel.
In PRAIRIE CINDERELLA, I have tried to portray her as a
complex woman who was driven to create but who also gave her all to take care
of the people she loved. There are two love stories in this novel, and a happy
ending. Vinnie Ream was amazing. I hope you will read Prairie Cinderella and
come to love her as much as I do.
Purchase PRAIRIE CINDERELLA
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