"Anne Royall is a marvelous subject, a bold eighteenth-century woman writer with a stinging wit and a contrarian approach. Challenging, intrepid, and unconventional, she played an important part in American cultural history." -Roxana Robinson, author of four New York Times Notable Books of the Year
The most interesting woman that I had never heard of. Anne Royall was called both 'heroine' and 'common scold' in her time; her story holds reverberations and implications for us today.
-Lee Smith, author of Dimestore: A Writer's Life
A well-researched and passionate biography of Anne Royall, one of America's first female muckrakers, who was convicted as a "common scold" in 1829 in one of the most bizarre trials in the nation's history.
Anne Royall was an American original. Her tenacity earned her the first presidential interview ever granted to a woman, but she acquired enemies for her scathing denouncement of the increasingly blurry lines between church and state. Royall's pioneering role as a chronicler, publisher, muckraker, and social commentator brought to light the timeless issues that still define the great American experience: religion and politics.
