Gertrudis Gómez De Avellaneda
u Introduction Gertrudis the Great: First Abolitionist and Feminist in the Americas and Spain María C. Albin, Megan Corbin, and Raúl Marrero-Fente To the Editor of The Sun—Sir: I was asked the other day who was the greatest Amer- ican poetess, and I said there isn’t one. And for that matter there isn’t one in the world. If the answer was not correct will THE SUN undertake to mention the lady’s name? M. N. Boston, Mass. The Sun (New York) Saturday, January 5, 1899, 6 To the Editor of The Sun—Sir: Will you be so kind as to mention in your valuable paper the name of Mrs. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, a Cuban by birth, as a great poetess, and perhaps the greatest ever born in America, or in the whole world, for that matter? I see in your editorial page of today that Mr. M. N. of Boston makes inquiry of the above name. D. Sardine New York, Jan. 5 The Sun (New York) January 7, 1899, 6 Gender and the Politics of Literature: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda Hispanic Issues On Line 18 (2017) 2 u GERTRUDIS THE GREAT: FIRST ABOLITIONIST AND FEMINIST IN THE AMERICAS AND SPAIN The Cuban-Spanish writer Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, 1814–Madrid, 1873) was a remarkable woman ahead of her time: a pioneer and versatile author who cultivated all the literary genres with great mastery and success. At the same time, she was also a public figure who used her writings to address the main issues of her century, in particular the eman- cipation of women, the abolition of slavery, secularization, and the role of religion in society.1 Foremost female writer of the nineteenth century and one of the greatest poets and playwrights of all time, she was a pioneer of the abo- litionist novel in the Americas with her work Sab, the first anti-slavery novel, published eleven years before Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).
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