Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener

A story of transgression in the face of religious ideology, a sexist scientific establishment, and political resistance to securing women’s right to vote.

When Ohio newspapers published the story of Alice Chenoweth’s affair with a married man, she changed her name to Helen Hamilton Gardener, moved to New York, and devoted her life to championing women’s rights and decrying the sexual double standard. She published seven books and countless essays, hobnobbed with the most interesting thinkers...