Queen Silver

by Wendy McElroy

When she was just eight-years-old, a little girl with the odd name of Queen Silver stunned citizens and scholars alike in pre-1920s Los Angeles by hosting six remarkable public lectures on Darwin and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573927554
• ISBN13: 9781573927550
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An invaluable book

She was a brilliant child lecturer, an incorrigible brat, a devoted freethinker, and a lifelong feminist. Queen Silver is one of those people that should be presented in any high school civics class (if such things still exist). McElroy has given readers a book that can be appreciated on different levels. It can be read as a straightforward biography, detailing not only Queen's life but that of her mother, Grace Vaughn Silver, socialist lecturer and union advocate, who was the dominant figure in Queen's life. At 17, Grace left an abusive home with 5.00 in her pocket and the determination never to be anyone's slave. Ten days after giving birth to Queen, the pair resumed the lecture circut and Queen's life of freethought and self-education began. This book also serves as a valuable collection of lectures and essays, illustrating Queen's diverse interests. These writings cover a wide variety of subjects, from the lesser known subversive works of Mark Twain to one of the earliest explorations of the Salem Witch Trials.McElroy has written an engaging history of one of America's more intriguing subversives.

An astounding story of an authentic child prodigy.

When she was just eight a little girl with an odd name delivered six astounding public lectures on Darwin and Einstein. A child prodigy, Queen Silver was a feminist at a very early age and in later years worked to further women's rights. This biography examines her life and times, her achievements, and her strengths. An astounding survey of a young girl's early public awareness and social strengths.

Wendy McElroy makes me wish I had met Queen Silver

Wendy McElroy is one of this century's most brilliant women. She writes better than almost everybody else. More, what she writes about is so seldom dealt with intelligently or even rationally, and she does both beautifully. Her friendship with Queen Silver is worthy of a book itself, since the two disagreed about almost all the fundamentals: Queen was a socialist, Wendy is a libertarian. But both shared a love for an open society and freedom of speech, and a love for honor and honesty that seems almost absent from modern politics, among other things. Queen Silver was a major participant in a turbulent era, and Wendy McElroy has done her proud, and has done us, her readers, a major service with this fascinating and very personal history.