"Kate field was among the first celebrity journalists. A literary and cultural sensation, she not only reported the news but often made the news herself because of her sharp wit and vibrant presence. She wrote for several prestigious newspapers, such as the Boston Post, Chicago Times-Herald, and New York Tribune, as well as her own Kate Field's Washington. Field's friends and professional acquaintances included Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, and Mark Twain. Legendary novelist Henry James patterned the character of Henrietta Stackpole after her in The Portrait of a Lady. In the first book-length biography of Field, Gary Scharnhorst offers a fascinating portrait of a fiercely intelligent and enormously independent woman who contributed significantly to America's intellectual and social life in the late nineteenth century. Kate Field was an outspoken advocate for the rights of black Americans and founder of the first women's club in America. She campaigned to make Yosemite a national park and saved John Brown's Adirondack farm for the nation."--Dust jacket flaps.