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BY NINA PELAEZ

In print | Published April 22, 2010

On Monday, the department of English literature and the Swarthmore College library came together to host an intimate reading by Swarthmore alumna, author and editor Barbara Sicherman ’55.
The reading took place in the McCabe reading room and was attended by a small yet passionate group of faculty, students and local enthusiasts. The reading was held in celebration of Jane Addams and included a reading by Sicherman from her newest book “Well Read Lives: How Books Inspired A Generation of American Women.”

The reading and discussion reminded the audience of the important achievements made by some of the women Sicherman discussed, while illuminating some of the crucial ways in which reading and literature can shape society.

“That’s what we are here to celebrate today,” Peter Schmidt said in the introduction, speaking about Sicherman’s recent publication. Sicherman’s reading focused upon the ways in which books inspired women of the Gilded Age generation and the ways in which such a culture of reading helped lead these women to ultimately leave an extraordinary record in public achievement.

“In the era of the Gilded Age women often lost and found themselves in books,” Sicherman said at the beginning of her talk. She continued by explaining some of the reasons that this era in particular was conducive to creating communities of learning and imagination through literature and reading. This included the importance of reading as a central cultural and leisure activity.

During the era of the Gilded Age, the absence of other forms of popular entertainment led reading to become the primary way to pass the time and thus was ultimately able, as Sicherman argued, to help women obtain a social identity. Sicherman spoke about the particular influence of Louisa May Alcott’s celebrated novel “Little Women” and the way it inspired and resonated with many of the young women growing up in this era.

Sicherman spoke at length about the experiences of a number of women and the way that their experiences with books transformed them. This included Jane Addams, who founded the U.S. settlement house movement, as well as African American Journalist Ida B. Wells and M. Carey Thomas, former president of Bryn Mawr College.

“The Gilded Age culture of reading promoted female agency in ways not duplicated before or since,” Sicherman said. She commented upon her interest in looking not only at what these women read during this time but also how they read and with whom.

Sicherman believes that a great deal of the influence from reading was due to communities of support and encouragement among women which reading facilitated. Women often shared their literary passions with friends. It was this collective nature of women’s reading that differentiated it from men’s and was central to the web of female friendship at the time.

“Domestic literary culture was participatory,” Sicherman said. “It included writing, not only reading.” Reading reinforced original aspirations for these women to make something of themselves in a time when most women could not hold the same professions as men did. Furthermore, the collaborative nature of reading and writing acted as rehearsals for these women’s later literary work.

“It provided the bridge to women’s future lives,” Sicherman said, referring to these literary endeavors that included collaborations, diary keeping and discussions.

Pamela Harris, the Outreach and Instruction Librarian at Swarthmore, spoke a bit about the importance of this reading.

“It was an excellent topic for the library, to see one of the many ways how reading can influence one’s development … All the books she mentioned seem like old friends,” Harris said. “It’s amazing to think about what it is these women were looking for in those books: the tomboy, the ‘I can do anything’ attitude.”

“I was a reader and can recall certain signature books from childhood that were formative in some way,” Sicherman said, speaking about what it led her to develop this project.

She also mentioned that previous work and research as well as new work in book histories led her to pursue this subject.

During the discussion following the reading, many of the audience members commented on the ways that this culture of reading has since dissolved due to social and cultural changes as well as major shifts in modes of popular entertainment.

Sicherman assured the audience that she was by no means downplaying the importance of books, although she said, “Nowadays, women have other kinds of role models. They can imagine being someone without reading.”

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