Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words

Leave it to a TV reporter to come up with a book that presents ''Susan B. Anthony in Sound Bites,'' as Lynn Sherr says she described Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words to her friends while writing it. A correspondent for 20/20, Sherr culled these excerpts from the letters, speeches, and diary entries of this pioneering feminist to coincide with the 75th anniversary of women's suffrage. Considering the multitude of Anthony biographies and letters already extant, this project might seem redundant. Sherr's lively narratives, however, capture her subject's dauntlessness in championing women's rights, standing up to suffrage-resistant Presidents, and publicly defending female property holders and prostitutes alike. And in doing so, Sherr breathes new life into Anthony as she introduces her to a new generation of readers. B+