duty and the duty of yourself and all the liberals to be at the
next convention and try to reverse this miserable narrow action."[410]

To a reporter who wanted her views on _The Woman's Bible_, she made it
plain that she had no part in writing the book, but added, "I think
women have just as good a right to interpret and twist the Bible to
their own advantage as men have always twisted it and turned it to
theirs. It was written by men, and therefore its reference to women
reflects the light in which they were regarded in those days. In the
same way the history of our Revolutionary War was written, in which
very little is said of the noble deeds of women, though we know how
they stood by and helped the great work; it is so with history all
through."[411]

* * * * *

For some years, Susan's girls had been urging her to write her
reminiscences, spurred on by the fact that Mrs. Stanton, Mary
Livermore, and Julia Ward Howe were writing theirs. There were also
other good reasons for putting her to work at this task. Writing would
keep her safely at home and away from the strenuous work in the field
which they feared was sapping her strength. It would keep her well
occupied so that they could develop the work and the conventions in
their own way.

Susan put off this task from month to month and from year to year,
torn between her desire to leave a true record of her work and her
longing to be always in the thick of the suffrage fight. Finally she
began looking about for a collaborator, convinced that she herself
could never write an interesting line. Ida Husted Harper, with her
newspaper experience and her interest in the cause, seemed the logical
choice, and in the spring of 1897, she came to 17 Madison Street to
work on the biography.[412]

The attic had been remodeled for workrooms and here Susan now spent
her days with Mrs. Harper, trying to reconstruct the past. She had
definite ideas about how the book should be written, holding up as a
model the biography of William Lloyd Garrison recently written by his
children. Mrs. Harper also had high standards, and influenced by
the formalities of the day, edited Susan's vivid brusque
letters--hurriedly written and punctuated with dashes--so that they
conformed with her own easy but more formal style. To this Susan
readily consented, for she always depreciated her own writing ability.
On one point, however, she was adamant, that her story be