It's unfortunate when people end up writing the wrong book, whether it's because they couldn't sell the one they really wanted to write, or because they just didn't realize what book they really wanted to write.
I read the Stashower a few years ago, and while he works the Poe connection pretty heavily, it sounds like it's a better (although probably not perfect) take on the incident that this book was. I recall reading a book about this case in the 1970s, when I was an undergraduate, but I can't drag the name of that book to the forefront of my consciousness.
All these issues--the economic insecurity of women at that time, the disruption in society as more women began to work outside the home (this was close to the time of the Lowell mill girls, after all), the sexual vulnerability of women, both in urban and other environments in that era--all these are worth investigating. So is what happened to Mary Rogers, which was informed by all these issues, but not limited to them.
no subject
I read the Stashower a few years ago, and while he works the Poe connection pretty heavily, it sounds like it's a better (although probably not perfect) take on the incident that this book was. I recall reading a book about this case in the 1970s, when I was an undergraduate, but I can't drag the name of that book to the forefront of my consciousness.
All these issues--the economic insecurity of women at that time, the disruption in society as more women began to work outside the home (this was close to the time of the Lowell mill girls, after all), the sexual vulnerability of women, both in urban and other environments in that era--all these are worth investigating. So is what happened to Mary Rogers, which was informed by all these issues, but not limited to them.