Maria Mitchell biography makes history
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
At this very moment, at a desk in New Mexico, Margaret Moore Booker is gleaning every possible subject, every pertinent noun and name, from the life of Maria Mitchell for an index to the biography she has written on Nantucket's lady astronomer.

It is a particularly hairy task, given that Mitchell was not only the first American woman to discover a comet, but also a civil rights leader and professor who championed women's rights in the street and in the classroom.

Published by the Egan Foundation's Mill Hill Press as a joint project between the Egan Foundation and the Maria Mitchell Association, "Among The Stars" is the most comprehensive biography ever written on Mitchell.

"This was very much a collarboration between the two organizations, and we believe she has done a spectacular piece of research," said Egan Foundation Executive Director Jean Grimmer. "This book was very necessary."

Booker promises new insights on the woman who had sensible shoes, a wry humor, a good Yankee horse sense and also, Booker found, a love for writing mediocre poetry.

"She had a wonderful sense of humor," said Booker, who once worked on island as the Arts Editor for the nowdefunct Nantucket Beacon and also as the curator of collections for the Egan Foundation. "You look at portraits of her, and think she's a stodgy, conservative Quaker, but she had a wonderful sense of humor, a real warmth about her and some real, long-lasting close friendships."

The book describes Mitchell as a young Atheneum librarian who bloomed late in life, studying the heavens from her Main Street apartment until she caught the tail of a comet and rode it off Nantucket (where the Quakers had disowned her) to national and international recognition.

Booker said she has even been able to debunk a few myths.

"The biggest one being the story of how she supposedly saved the Methodist Church, during the Great Fire, when they were destroying buildings to prevent the fire from spreading," Booker recounted. "According to Helen Wright, Maria's eyes were streaming with tears, and she put her outstretched arms in front of the church and wouldn't let them destroy it. But it's a bunch of blooey. There's no proof that she did it, and it's highly unlikely, from what I discovered, that it happened. It's more likely that she was at the Athenuem trying to save book collections."

But don't expect much in the way of revelations on Mitchell's uncertain and oft-questioned romantic predilections.

"She knew a lot of women who lived in romantic relationships with other women, especially through the women's rights movement, but she never commented on it, other than to chastise crushes between her female students that distracted them from their work," Booker said. In short, the book concludes that Mitchell was resigned to a sexual orientation of "single and working."

"I think the strength of the book is that it is about Maria in all her facets and accomplishments. She was a lot more than an astronomer," said the book's editor, Mill Hill Press's Richard Duncan. "She was a very dedicated teacher when people were developing the philosophy on how to teach women, at a time when people were saying things like, 'Don't work women too hard or they'll collapse.' She was a part of that pedagogy. Also she was a real women's leader nationally."

Duncan said that while Mitchell was steady in her scientific career, she showed the most fire in her work to bring gender equality to higher education.

"It was one of the only times you would really see her get mad," Duncan said. "Any sign of inequality, she was up there on her hind legs, writing her memos to the president of Vassar. She was not paid equally, and boy, did she let everyone know about it. When it came to science or to women's rights and politics, she was passionate. But when it came to education and equal pay for equal work, she thumped tables and showed her real mettle."

The book is due out by Memorial Day, and will be on sale this summer at local book stores, the Egan Foundation and at the Maria Mitchell Association. (You can pre-order the book through any of these outlets now.)

"The book is a great way to present the founder and her vision," said Janet Schulte, director of the Maria Mitchell Association. "People who have a fascination about Nantucket, Maria Mitchell, women in science or Vassar

will all want a copy on their shelves." I