Beecher Stowe Harriet. My Wife and I

Hougton, Miffin and Company. Boston and New York, 1899. — 515 p.My Wife and I, first published as magazine serials in 1871, is fictional criticisms of contemporary figures and ideas in the women's rights movement. Writing in the introduction to My Wife and I, Stowe described marriage as "the oldest and most venerable form of Christian union on record." Her chosen title, "My Wife and I," Stowe stressed, was to be construed as the "sign and symbol of more than any earthly partnership," as, instead, "something sacred as religion, indissoluble as the soul, endless as eternity — the symbol chosen by Almighty Love to represent his redeeming eternal union with the soul of man." Underlying these sentiments was the anticipation that wife and husband would perform in perfect harmony their respective duties within designated spheres. The superior, selfless woman set an example for her husband and nurtured her children, while the strong, reliable male absented himself from the family on a daily basis in order to provide for its support.
Harriet’s son Frederick, "a smart bright lively boy – full of all manner of fun & mischief fond of reading more than of hard study," according to his mother, was the inspiration for the character Tom Bolton in My Wife and I and We and Our Neighbors. In these books Stowe insightfully described alcoholism as an illness, at a time when most people believed it was a moral failure. Fred and his family struggled unsuccessfully with his alcohol addiction. Fred went to California in 1870 and disappeared. Historians believe he died shortly after arriving.