Susanna Rowson is known today as the author of America's first best-selling novel, Charalotte. A Tale of Truth (1791). But in addition to this remarkably popular work, Rowson published nine other novels, two volumes of verse, a lengthy critical poem, five theater pieces, six textbooks, numerous essays, and successful song lyrics. Actress, playwright, novelist, and songwriter, Rowson also founded one of New England's best-known academies for young women. Throughout her varied professional life, Rowson exhibited a Franklinian energy, succeeding in a number of pursuits commonly unavailable to genteel women. Her achievements as an early American writer and public figure belie the modern perception of her as a mere sentimentalist.

Rowson's early years exposed her firsthand to the tumult of the Revolutionary era. She was born in Portsmouth, England, to Susanna Musgrave (or Musgrove) Haswell, who died in childbirth. The motherless Susanna was taken at age five to settle in...