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    Are Women People?
    Are Women People?
    Are Women People?
    Ebook52 pages37 minutes

    Are Women People?

    By Alice Duer Miller and Mint Editions

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    About this ebook

    Are Women People? (1915) is a collection of poems by Alice Duer Miller. Inspired by her work as an activist for women’s suffrage, Miller published many of these poems individually in the New York Tribune before compiling them into this larger work. Focusing on the opposition of politicians and citizens alike, Miller makes a compelling case for the extension of voting rights to women across the nation. With her keen eye for hypocrisy and even keener ear for the rhythms of the English language, Alice Miller Duer crafts a poetry both personal and political. In “Representation,” she lampoons the notion that men’s votes and voices are capable of representing the viewpoints of the women in their lives: “My present wife’s a suffragist, and counts on my support, / […] / One grandmother is on the fence, the other much opposed, / And my sister lives in Oregon, and thinks the question’s closed; / Each one is counting on my vote to represent her view. / Now what should you think proper for a gentleman to do?” In these lighthearted lines, Miller satirizes the exclusion of women from American democracy, which inherently supposes that womanhood is monolithic, containing no opposing points of view. In “To President Wilson,” Miller excoriates the President for his focus on militarism and foreign policy, asking “How can you plead so earnestly for men / Who fight their own fight with a bloody hand; / […] and then / Forget the women of your native land?” Succinctly and convincingly, Miller makes her case for women’s suffrage. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alice Duer Miller’s Are Women People? is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMint Editions
    Release dateMay 11, 2021
    ISBN9781513288598
    Are Women People?
    Author

    Alice Duer Miller

    Alice Duer Miller was born in Staten Island, New York, on July 28, 1874, into a wealthy and prominent family. She grew up in Weehawken, New Jersey with her parents and two sisters. She was the daughter of James Gore King Duer and Elizabeth Wilson Meads. The family lost their fortune during the Baring Bank failure.Alice wrote her entire life, but before she was a full-time writer, she taught at a girls school English composition and tutored Barnard College students in mathematics. Miller became known as a campaigner for women's suffrage and was an active member of the Algonquin Round Table and Heterodoxy (group). She published a series of satirical poems in the New York Tribune titled and later republished in the collection, Are Women People? These words became a catchphrase of the suffrage movement.As a novelist, she scored her first success with Come Out of the Kitchen in 1916. The story was made into a play and later the 1948 film Spring in Park Lane. She followed it with a series of other short novels, many of which were staged and (increasingly) made into films.Her novel in verse Forsaking All Others (1933) about a tragic love affair, and many consider her greatest work. Miller was invited to write for Hollywood in 1921 by Samuel Goldwyn. Many of her stories became motion pictures, such as Are Parents People? (1925), Roberta (1935), and Irene (1940). She also became involved in a number of motion picture screenplays, including Wife vs. Secretary (1936). Her name appears in the very first issue of The New Yorker as an advisory editor. Throughout her life, she wrote successfully for a wide range of genres and produced forty-four books. Once she graduated, she married Henry Wise Miller on October 5, 1899, at Grace Church Chapel in New York City. Henry asked Alice to marry him three days after their first meeting. He was a Harvard graduate,born in 1877, the son of Lt. Commander Jacob Miller. They moved to Costa Rica, where Henry Miller was gambling on land speculation and rubber cultivation. Henry and Alice had their first son Denning Duer Miller in this time period when they were moving back and forth between New York City and Costa Rica. Their investment failed and the family moved back to New York City and struggled for years financially. Alice served as the primary breadwinner for the first decade of the marriage until Henry became a successful Wall Street stockbroker.After a long illness, Alice Duer Miller died in 1942 and was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey.

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      Book preview

      Are Women People? - Alice Duer Miller

      TREACHEROUS TEXTS

      A Consistent Anti to Her Son

      (Look at the hazards, the risks, the physical dangers that ladies would be exposed to at the polls.—Anti-suffrage speech.)

      You’re twenty-one today, Willie,

      And a danger lurks at the door,

      I’ve known about it always,

      But I never spoke before;

      When you were only a baby

      It seemed so very remote,

      But you’re twenty-one today, Willie,

      And old enough to vote.

      You must not go to the polls, Willie,

      Never go to the polls,

      They’re dark and dreadful places

      Where many lose their souls;

      They smirch, degrade and coarsen,

      Terrible things they do

      To quiet, elderly women—

      What would they do to you!

      If you’ve a boyish fancy

      For any measure or man,

      Tell me, and I’ll tell Father,

      He’ll vote for it, if he can.

      He casts my vote, and Louisa’s,

      And Sarah, and dear Aunt Clo;

      Wouldn’t you let him vote for you?

      Father, who loves you so?

      I’ve guarded you always, Willie,

      Body and soul from harm;

      I’ll guard your faith and honor,

      Your innocence and charm

      From the polls and their evil spirits,

      Politics, rum and pelf;

      Do you think I’d send my only son

      Where I would not go myself?

      Our Idea of Nothing at All

      (I am opposed to woman suffrage, but I am not opposed to woman.—Anti-suffrage speech of Mr. Webb of North Carolina.)

      O women, have you heard the news

      Of charity and grace?

      Look, look, how joy and gratitude

      Are beaming in my face!

      For Mr. Webb is not opposed

      To woman in her place!

      O Mr. Webb, how kind you are

      To let us live at all,

      To let us light the kitchen range

      And tidy up the hall;

      To tolerate the female sex

      In spite of Adam’s fall.

      O girls, suppose that Mr. Webb

      Should alter his decree!

      Suppose he were opposed to us—

      Opposed to you and me.

      What would be left for us to do—

      Except to cease to be?

      Lines to Mr. Bowdle of Ohio

      (The women of this smart capital are beautiful. Their beauty is disturbing to business; their feet are beautiful, their ankles are beautiful, but here I must pause.—Mr. Bowdle’s anti-suffrage speech in Congress, January 12, 1915.)

      You, who despise the so-called fairer sex,

      Be brave. There really isn’t any reason

      You should not, if you wish, oppose and vex

      And scold us in, and

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