{"product_id":"reviewer-mrs-emma-willard-reviewed-n8zkv9b6","title":"The Reviewer of Mrs. Emma Willard Reviewed.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRare.\u003c\/strong\u003e OCLC records copies at the American Antiquarian Society, Princeton and New York Historical Society only in the USA; BL only in the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn anonymous impassioned response to a hostile review of Emma Willard’s proposals for improving the education of young female teachers in America. Emma Willard (1787-1870) was a key figure in education reform for women and founded the first school for women’s higher education at the Troy Female Seminary (in 1814).\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWillard’s \u003cem\u003eLetter addressed as a circular to the members of the Willard Association for the Mutual Improvement of Female Teachers formed at the Troy Female Seminary\u003c\/em\u003e was published in Troy, New York in 1838 and reviewed in \u003cem\u003eBurton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, and American Monthly Review\u003c\/em\u003e in February 1839. The review of Willard’s \u003cem\u003eLetter\u003c\/em\u003e states:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“As a writer Mrs Willard cannot be said to shine; nor will her warmest admirers claim that, as such she ought to be considered a model in any one particular! It is to be hoped, for the sake of her numerous pupils, that she teaches the art of composition better than she practises it. The name of her faults is “Legion.” Witness her French Travels the pamphlet on our table and her other works \u003cem\u003epassim\u003c\/em\u003e. She neither thinks forcibly nor clothes such thoughts as she has in a graceful and correct style What she says does not come welling forth from the deep clear overflowing fountain of her own mind. It does not seem to be a portion of her own spirit transferred to the warm and breathing page but has rather the air of something that has been picked up here and there and brought together and arranged with infinite toil and pains. Her power of analysis is exceedingly feeble; her conceptions are often confused and indistinct her knowledge of the real power and apposite use of words seems scarcely to have passed its nonage; and the ordinary current of her thoughts is very common place. Yet her egotism makes up for all other deficiencies” (p.124)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author of this pamphlet - who signs themselves “Vindicator” at the end - takes apart many of the arguments made by the reviewer and defends Willard and her institution:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“The Troy-Seminary has sent forth its thousands of well-educated females, few of whom have ever failed in virtue, in modesty, in polished manners in learning and in talents. None whose errors were the result of the want of vigilance or ability in conducting their minds when there, or of maternal admonition when absent…”\u003c\/strong\u003e (p.15-6)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present pamphlet was in turn reviewed in \u003cem\u003eBurton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, and American Monthly Review\u003c\/em\u003e where it was noted that the original review had received a “rabid replication” but dismissed, “this furious broadside” as, “noise and smoke” (p.359)\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48283965980829,"sku":"263063","price":850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/263063_02.jpg?v=1778817667","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/reviewer-mrs-emma-willard-reviewed-n8zkv9b6","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}