Saxton, Martha 1945–

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Saxton, Martha 1945–

PERSONAL: Born September 3, 1945, in New York, NY; daughter of Mark (a writer and editor) and Josephine (an editor; maiden name, Stocking) Saxton; married Enrico Ferorelli (a photographer), July 11, 1977. Education: University of Chicago, B.A., 1967; Columbia University, Ph.D. Hobbies and other interests: Playing the piano, jogging.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Office—111 Chapin Hall, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002-5000. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and professor. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, editorial assistant, 1967–68; Rand McNally & Co., New York, NY, editorial assistant, 1969; Literary Guild, New York, NY, editor, 1970–73; freelance writer, beginning 1973; Amherst College, Amherst, MA, assistant professor of history and women's and gender studies, 1997–.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, Authors League of America.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Jayne Mansfield and the American Dream, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1975.

Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1977.

(Contributor) Geoffrey C. Ward, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: An Illustrated History, Knopf (New York, NY), 1999.

Being Good: Women's Moral Values in Early America, Hall and Wang (New York, NY), 2003.

OTHER

(With Rupert Holmes) The Forties, edited by Jeffrey Weiss, Consolidated Music Publishers (New York, NY), 1975.

The Fifties, edited by Jeffrey Weiss, Consolidated Music Publishers (New York, NY), 1975.

The Twenties, edited by Jeffrey Weiss, Consolidated Music Publishers (New York, NY), 1976.

(With Gordon Williams) Love Songs, Consolidated Music Publishers (New York, NY), 1976.

Contributor to periodicals, including Quest, New Yorker, American Heritage, History Today, and Viva.

SIDELIGHTS: After a career as a writer and editor that included the publication of several biographies of prominent American women, Martha Saxton became a college professor teaching history and women's and gender studies. She continued to write about women, publishing the nonfiction title Being Good: Women's Moral Values in Early America in 2003. In the book, Saxton explores the moral values imposed on girls and women in the United States, how the values affected them, and the ways in which these values changed over time. Saxon limits her focus to three times and places in the United States: Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1600s; Virginia in the 1700s; and St. Louis, Missouri, in 1900s. Saxton believes that as the United States became bigger in size and economy, white women had an increased moral value, at least on a symbolic basis. However, black women saw their moral value decrease over the years, especially as slavery became more widespread. Writing in the Journal of Social History, Linda W. Rosenzweig commented, "Martha Saxton has written an intriguing and complex book that offers much for the reader who is interested in women's and gender history, emotions history, and behavioral history."

Saxton once commented: "Good biography, like good fiction, seems to me the best way to understand as completely as possible another person's point of view. History and travel are the other two ways I prefer for changing perspective. I read and write history, and travel as often as possible."