Library Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Book |
Catalog Number |
2011.fic.685 |
Summary |
First edition of Abby Whitney Brown's "Can She Atone?" Signed by the Author. |
Physical Description |
Red hardcover book with gold text on the binding and black decorations on the cover. |
Author |
Brown, Abby Whitney |
Title |
Can She Atone? |
Publisher |
J.B. Lippincott & Co. |
Published Date |
1879 |
People |
Brown, Abby Whitney |
Search Terms |
Made in La Crosse |
Notes |
Walter Brown was one of La Crosse’s early settlers, arriving as a young man on the steamboat Nominee in 1851. He was born in Cuba and had trained in the hardware business in Connecticut. His future wife Abby Whitney came to La Crosse with her family from Massachusetts shortly afterward. Walter and Abby were part of La Crosse’s 1854 resident list, under "Single Men" and "Single Women." They married in September 1855. Walter and Abby became writers in retirement. "Mitylene", written by Walter and Abby jointly in 1879, and "Can She Atone?" written by Abby independently in 1880. "Mitylene", subtitled "A Tale of New England and the Tropics", is about a man, his daughters, and their physician shipwrecked on an uninhabited Pacific island. With elaborate prose, it told a Robinson Crusoe-like story of their life on the island and eventual rescue. The book was highly popular in its time. Abby’s book, "Can She Atone?" is about a woman who had a child out of wedlock, fell upon hard times, but eventually married a kind man. The story was fairly realistic and sold widely throughout America and Britain in its day. It is currently available in reprinted editions because of its significance in women’s literature. |