The Greatest Women You Never Heard Of

Women’s History Month may be over, but die-hard historians might want to check out “Extraordinary Women” (Adams Media, 1999), a book that catalogs and describes 365 impressive females (one for every day!) in easy-to-digest, one-page descriptions.

While many of the women in the book are famous--Eleanor Roosevelt, Sojourner Truth and Janet Reno, for example--many more were chosen because their accomplishments are often overlooked by history books. One such subject is Hessie Donahue, a vaudeville performer who became the unofficial heavyweight boxing champion of the world when she knocked out previously undefeated champion John L. Sullivan in 1892. Another oft-overlooked heroine, journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, assumed the name of Nellie Bly and feigned insanity to observe the inhumane conditions of Blackwell’s Island women’s asylum in 1887.

“Extraordinary Women” is an easy read and a nice resource (it’s organized alphabetically). Other titles in the Adams Media series are “What Every American Should Know About Women’s History” and “The Book of African-American Women.”

For information, call (800) 872-5627.