Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell.Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell. By Sharon Hatfield. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP), is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois. Overview According to the UIP's website: , c. 2005. Pp. xx, 286. $21.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-252-03003-6.) Appalachian native and journalist Sharon Hatfield has written a narrative of "one of the largest media events in the annals of Appalachia" (p. 52). Twenty-one-year-old Edith Maxwell was tried and convicted twice for the 1935 killing of her father, H. T. (Trigg) Maxwell. The Wise County, Virginia Wise County is a county located in the U.S. state — officially, "Commonwealth" — of Virginia. In 1856, the county was formed from land taken from Lee, Scott, and Russell Counties. It was named after Henry A. Wise, who was the Governor of Virginia at the time. , juries that found her guilty were constituted only of men, as women were excluded from juries by state law. Seizing on sensational allegations, including one that Edith had hit her father with a high-heeled shoe High-heeled shoes are shoes which raise the heel of the wearer's foot significantly higher than the toes. When both the heel and the toes are raised equal amounts, as in a platform shoe, it is generally not considered to be a "high-heel". after he tried to beat her for staying out too late, the press made the case into a national melodrama. The setting, made famous by John Fox's novel The Trail of the Lonesome lone·some adj. 1. a. Dejected because of a lack of companionship. See Synonyms at alone. b. Producing such dejection: a lonesome hour at the bar. 2. Pine, allowed the press, led by the William Randolph William Randolph (1650 - April 11, 1711) was a colonist and land owner who played an important role in the history and politics of what became the U.S. state of Virginia. He was born in Warwickshire, England, to Richard Randolph (1627-1671) and Elizabeth Ryland (1625-1670). Hearst interests, to portray the case as a clash between backward Appalachian life and modern society. Newspapers directly contributed to Edith Maxwell's defense by raising funds, hiring experts, and securing a lawyer. The press coverage also prompted the National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP), was a women's organization founded in 1913 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men and against employment discrimination. to integrate the case into its campaign for women's jury service. And it caused a number of socially and politically prominent people to take up Edith Maxwell's case. After her second conviction, she cut her ties with the party and sought a pardon, which she received in 1941. Hatfield dug very deeply in the primary sources and analyzes them well. She used both trial transcripts and the pardon papers. She mined all the newspapers involved and utilized the private and organizational papers of those associated with the case. Beyond that, she examined the records of the production and distribution of the film that spun out of the case. She also used materials about Maxwell's life after prison. From this evidence, Hatfield draws sound conclusions about every aspect of the affair. That she admits that "after two jury trials and millions of printed words, the truth of what had happened" remains unknowable un·know·a·ble adj. Impossible to know, especially being beyond the range of human experience or understanding: the unknowable mysteries of life. is a sign of her judicious use of evidence (p. 244). Sadly, the book is weakened by being overwritten, as shown by this passage about the National Woman's Party lawyer's appearance in Wise County: "She had played the legal gladiator gladiator (Latin; swordsman) Professional combatant in ancient Rome who engaged in fights to the death as sport. Gladiators originally performed at Etruscan funerals, the intent being to give the dead man armed attendants in the next world. . She had run a gauntlet of patriarchal slings and arrows, coming clear, doing the job she came south to do" (p. 154). Moreover, the notes are matched by a chapter-by-chapter "bibliographic essay," so readers will have to consult both to find out what sources were used; and even then they might be disappointed. The book's first note reads, "All direct quotations in this chapter were taken from the trial transcripts" without mentioning page numbers or even which transcript (p. 257). And finally, the book does not connect to the huge amount of scholarly literature about the portrayal of Appalachia and the South or the meaning of sensational trials. It does not even mention the other scholarly works on the case: Gary Dean Best, Witch Hunt in Wise County: The Persecutions of Edith Maxwell (Westport, Conn., 1994); Richard F. Hamm, Murder, Honor, and Law: Four Virginia Homicides from Reconstruction to the Great Depression (Charlottesville, 2003), 154-201; and Richard F. Hamm, "Mobilizing Legal Talent for a Cause: The National Woman's Party and the Campaign to Make Jury Service for Women a Federal Right," American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, 9 (2001), 97-117. Nor does it draw upon the modern scholarly work on the press, which stresses that news was a social construction. Despite these flaws, Hatfield has produced a tight narrative that does justice to all the facets of a complex story. RICHARD F. HAMM University at Albany, State University of New York (body) State University of New York - (SUNY) The public university system of New York State, USA, with campuses throughout the state. |
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