THE MUSE OF THE REVOLUTION:
The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s work on extraordinary women hailed Founding Mother Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814) for supporting the freedom of American men and “that of her own sex also.”

In this lively biography of the first female historian of the American Revolution and our first woman playwright, Nancy Rubin Stuart captures intimate details of Mrs. Warren’s life and patriotic achievements.

The sister of firebrand James “the Patriot” Otis, who first declared that “taxation without representation is tyranny,” Mrs. Warren was the mother of five sons and the wife of James Warren, Speaker of the Massachusetts House and Paymaster General of the Revolutionary Army.

In 1775 the erudite Mrs. Warren served as her husband’s private secretary at headquarters in Watertown, Massachusetts where she heard secret reports about the Revolution that few men —and virtually no women—could have known.

A close friend of Abigail and John Adams, she and Abigail shared fears, comforted each other in their husbands’ absences, exchanged theories about child-rearing and even ran a small importing business together.

John Adams, who was impressed with Mrs. Warren’s brains and literary talent, praised her for her "genius pen" and encourage her to write satirical plays, poems, as well as a history of the American Revolution.

In the early nineteenth century, after reading Mercy's long delayed three volume History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution (1805)Adams exploded and, in one of ten blistering letters, accused her of having a “determined resolution” to denigrate his role in the Revolution.

This eye-opening biography reveals their complex relationship—and why it unraveled.

The Muse of the Revolution captures Mrs. Warren’s bold interactions with other famous patriots, including Samuel Adams, Henry Knox, George and Martha Washington and Elbridge Gerry.

Mrs. Warren satirized the British and American Loyalists in her popular plays and poems and authored an influential critique of the U.S. Constitution, whose principles later appeared in the Bill of Rights.

Nancy Rubin Stuart reveals how Mrs. Warren’s provocative writing made her an exception to the largely voiceless women of the eighteenth century, and persuasively argues for her legacy to be understood and appreciated by a new generation.