A biography written during the lifetime of the subject is unusual, but
to the friends of Miss Anthony it seemed especially desirable because
the reform in which she and her contemporaries have been engaged has
not been given a deserved place in the pages of history, and the
accounts must be gleaned very largely from unpublished records and
personal recollections. The wisdom of this course often has been
apparent in the preparation of these volumes. In recalling how many
times an entirely different interpretation of letters, scenes and
actions would have been made from that which Miss Anthony declared to
be the true one, the author must confess that hereafter all biographies
will be read by her with a certain amount of skepticism--a doubt
whether the historian has drawn correct conclusions from apparent
premises, and a disbelief that one individual can state accurately the
motives which influenced another.
Most persons who have attained sufficient prominence to make a record
of their lives valuable are too busy to prepare an autobiography, but
there is only one other way to go down to posterity correctly
represented, and that is to have some one else write the history while
the hero still lives. If we admit this self-evident proposition, then
the question is presented, should it be published during his lifetime?
A reason analogous to that which justifies the writing, demands also
the publication, in order that denials or attacks may be met by the
person who, above all others, is best qualified to defend the original
statement. It seems a pity, too, that he should be deprived of knowing
what the press and the people think of the story of his life, since
there is no assurance that he will meet the book-reviewers in the next
world.
These volumes may claim the merit of truthfully describing the
principal events of Miss Anthony's life and presenting her opinions on
the various matters considered. She has objected to the eulogies, but
the writer holds that, as these are not the expressions of a partial
biographer but the spontaneous tributes of individuals and newspapers,
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