Nancy Rubin Stuart

"Rubin argues that the new maternal style "the mother manager" is a role whose time has come and ...the sacrificial madonna figure of the past is outmoded... In a superb closing chapter, the author offers plenty of wise advice on how to achieve this balance. The Mother Mirror is a watershed work on one of the most significant cultural developments of the '80s." --Cultural Information Service

"Rubin does an excellent job of describing the data that define the reality --including some surprises, such as the benefits of being raised by a single mother." --- Library Journal

" A look back to the old ways precedes probing of the new; single mothers, late-life motherhood, surrogate mothers, etc. Rubin is skilled at illuminating women's dilemmas, at identifying the conflicts inherent in today's mothering." -- Publishers Weekly

The Mother Mirror: How A Generation of Women Is Changing Motherhood in America

A journalistic portrait of motherhood, its joys, challenges and obligations as told to Nancy Rubin by dozens of mothers from Long Island to San Francisco that illustrates one of the era's most troubling dilemmas for women.

How can a young mother balance her work life with that of raising children?

Should she stay home full time when they are very young, work part-time or return to the workplace soon after giving birth? Is it better for her to stay home full-time to care of her children herself?

Or should she shun the "mommy track" in lieu of a fast-track career and let day care, household workers and after-school programs raise them?

As a young woman should she postpone pregnancy until her late 30s or early 40's -- accepting the liklihood that fertility drugs, in vitro pregnancy or even surrogate motherhood may be the only way in which she will ultimately bear a baby?

The answers to these dilemmas are as complex today as they were when The Mother Mirror was first published in 1984.

MY RECENT BOOKS

THE MUSE OF THE REVOLUTION: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation

( Boston: Beacon Press, 2008, 2009)
Winner of the 1699 Historic Winslow House Book Award
A riveting biography of one of America's boldest and most influential-but least recognized-Founding Mothers.

"A new biography… illuminates startling similarities between our present political landscape and that of our founding fathers and mothers." --Cape Cod Times, October 26, 2008

"This wonderfully researched and readable book has done an excellent job of giving another view of what it took to make this country. Essential for academic and public libraries. Enjoy!" -- Library Journal, May 1, 2008

“This commendable biography follows the life of New England patriot Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), the celebrated—and sometimes reviled—writer of poems, plays, history and satire... Warren emerges as a fully fleshed-out woman with literary insecurities, intractable opinions and a high-strung temper as well as deep affection for her husband and sons. Stuart includes fascinating period details, focusing primarily on Warren's home-front experiences of rampant inflation, scarcity of goods, high taxes and profiteering during the Revolution as well as typical 18th-century illnesses and family anxieties. Most poignantly, Stuart depicts Warren's loneliness and despair after the deaths of three of her five sons. This account is valuable as an eyewitness play-by-play of the American Revolution and will be a great resource to scholars of women's and literary history." --Publisher's Weekly, May 5, 2008

"Concise and readable... focuses on a founding mother who wrote in part because that was the one way a woman could contribute to the Revolution... there's plenty in Stuart's pages for those interested in the drama of the woman writer in Western culture." -- Boston Globe, June 29, 2008

"This dramatic biography makes it clear that future President Adams relied extensively upon advice from his wife, Abigail, as well as upon the guidance of Mercy Otis Warren...As Stuart demonstrates , Warren was a woman of independent hopes and dreams who believed strongly that she could express important ideas to the new American republic with her writing. Thankfully, she was right." --American Spirit, The Magazine of the Daughters of the American Revolution, July /August 2008

"Incredible source data, smooth narratives built around chapters, fragmented around specific moments, and intricate use of historical detail and setting...Stuart breathes new life into an early American poet and historian too often left out of historical discussion." -- Metro Spirit, Augusta, Georgia, July 2, 2008

"Nancy Rubin Stuart, the author of several popular biographies, presents Warren in a colorfully anecdotal style. Given the difficulty of reconstructing warren's life, Stuart has artfully set the story in the context of the Revolution and relied upon her subject's friendships, especially with the Admses. The pace is brisk, if not jaunty... As a lively introduction to the great Mercy Otis Warren, this book is appealing." -- Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2008

Other Recent Books by the Author

Biography

The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox
( New York: Harcourt, 2005)
“Fascinating biography...The great strength of Stuart's book is that she provides the necessary historical context...convincingly places the Fox sisters at a nexus of social and political change...offers fresh insight into the bored young girl with the toes heard round the world.” -- Washington Post "Stuart has created a richly sympathetic portrait of a fascinating and tragic woman, trapped by her family, her times, and her own aching heart, a woman who...didn't have the mettle or the means to make her own way, but was swept along in the era's spiritualism fever." --Boston Globe “This life story opens an illuminating window on an era and a movement. --Booklist, American Library Association "Diligently researched biography of the young woman responsible in the mid-1800s for the growth of spiritualism...Stuart capably chronicles this period of reliigous ferment...vividly details the course of ( Maggie's)ill-starred romance...a persuasive study of an unusual life." --Kirkus Reviews "The Reluctant Spiritualist is certainly a not-to-be missed biography of a fascinating personality. But it is much more… the enigmatic history of a curious but important period in the spiritual history of America. --Nimble Spirit Reviews "Fast-paced..highly readable and entertaining." -- Publishers Weekly

Biography

American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post
(New York: Villard Books, 1995 ; ASJA Press, 2002)
"This entrancing biography is full of high drama,gossip, scandal, and international political intrigue." -- Publisher's Weekly

Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen
( New York, St. Martin's Press, 1991, 1992) )
"An artful, sensitive biography… A prerequisite for understanding Isabella is understanding the period and Rubin excels at delineating both." --Booklist

Quick Links

To reach Nancy, email www.thewriteway@aol.com