A gifted writer of fiction, poetry, and journalism, published within her own lifetime, esteemed by such writers as Nathaniel Hawthorne, and situated at the epicentre of New York's literary world, Elizabeth Stoddard has nonetheless been almost excluded from literary memory. By reconsidering Stoddard's life and work and her current marginal status in the evolving canon of American literary studies, this book raises important questions about women's writing in the 19th century and canon formation in the 20th century.