Award-winning writer, teacher
and scholar

Men and Their Whims

Men and Their Whims

Men and Their Whims explores the relationship between Matilda Fletcher (1842-1909) and her younger brother, Geo. Geo served in the Illinois infantry during the Civil War, but his tour was brief due to an illness he contracted that left him partially deaf. He was discharged to return to his home where he later married and had children. In 1905, Geo was charged with murder and sentenced to life in the state prison in Joliet, IL. Matilda writes that Geo was jumped at a saloon. Somehow Spencer Post, one of the men involved and a friend of Geo’s, was stabbed. The injury hit Post’s femoral artery. He bled to death. Between 1905 and 1909, Matilda challenged the court's sentence, asking for Geo’s freedom. Her third book documents this work. She died shortly after it's publication in Rockford, Illinois. Men and Their Whims ponders Geo’s relationships and the circumstances that lead to the charge of murder.

Men and Their Whims displays poet Laura Madeline Wiseman’s familiar passion for her characters and knack for page-turning personable narrative. As in the University of Nebraska faculty’s other writings, underlying issues of gender, politics, war and sexual identity are interwoven in this eloquent, touching 19th century story of Matilda and George Fletcher (native Iowan siblings) using research and imagination, subtle irony and wit.
Cactus Heart

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