SOURCE: “Negotiating a Self: The Autobiography and Journals of Catharine Maria Sedgwick,” in New England Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 3, September, 1993, pp. 366-98.

In the following essay, Kelley appraises Sedgwick's autobiography and journals in the context of the larger contemporary political and ideological landscape in which they were written.

In a letter written on 5 October 1851, Catharine Maria Sedgwick responded to a proposal made by William Minot, the husband of her beloved niece and namesake, Kate. William had suggested that Sedgwick, a nationally acclaimed author of novels, tales, and sketches, undertake her autobiography. Had William appealed to her on the basis of her literary achievements, this inveterately modest woman almost certainly would have declined. Not surprisingly, then, William asked that the autobiography be written for his and Kate's daughter Alice, a child to whom Sedgwick was devoted.

Nonetheless, the project seemed daunting. A woman who had remained unmarried despite the protestations...