Clinton, Catherine. Fanny Kemble's civil war.

Oxford Univ. Press. 304p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. c2000. 0-19-514815-0. $15.95. SA

Fanny Kemble (1809-1893) was a leading member of a renowned British acting family that included her aunt, the famous Sarah Siddons. Kemble is not as well known today as she was in the 19th century, but Clinton introduces the modern reader to an actress who won over audiences not only in Europe but also in the United States. After a successful American tour, Fanny married a Southern planter in 1834. Pierce Butler was the owner of vast land holdings and numerous slaves. After spending many months in the Georgia Sea Islands, an unhappy Fanny was torn by the contrasting lives of the blacks and whites, especially the living conditions and harsh treatment of the slaves. Having been forced to give up her acting career by Butler and subject to his many demands, Fanny turned her energies to trying to ameliorate the slaves' lives, especially the women and children. Her journals from that period reveal a woman struggling with the issues of slavery and the abolitionist movement. When her marriage to Butler faltered and turned acrimonious, Fanny sought a divorce, which meant the loss of contact with their two daughters, Sarah and Frances, until they came of age. To provide income, Fanny published her journals about her Georgia experiences with slavery in 1863 and created her own "civil war," because Sarah, although of abolitionist sympathies, was angered by the exposure of the family's life and Frances defended her father and the concept of slavery. Neither daughter would read the published journals and many years passed before a true reconciliation took place. Fanny's journals became bestsellers, providing a means of support for her and her family. Though she returned to Europe and performed theatrical readings to provide for herself and her destitute British relatives, she made long visits to her American family, attempting to heal the wounds of conflict, but she never revisited the Butler plantations. She continued writing and publishing her memoirs until the end of her life. The works reveal a strong-minded woman caught up in political conflict, marital disputes and a bitter divorce, as well as the terrible ordeals of a family ripped apart by the same issues surrounding slavery that rent the nation during the Civil War.

Clinton's distillation of Kemble's writings presents an additional perspective on the turmoil that marked this era on both sides of the Atlantic. Mary Gerrity, Camp Springs, MD