I love well researched, off-beat Americana, and have a particular interest in the era this author covers in this book. I've long been fascinated by Victoria Woodhull, and I enjoyed the lens through which this narrative is captured and the verve and detail the author creates here. I will recommend to friends and colleagues, and will recommend to MFA students with interests that dovetail with the topics in this book.

An Unreadable Book on an Interesting Malevolent Female Profiteer
Eden Collinsworth, The Improbable Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and the First Woman to Run for President (New York: Doubleday, September 2, 2025). Hardcover: $30: 304pp. ISBN: 978-0-385-54957-8.
**
“…A portrait of Victoria Woodhull, a celebrated and maligned 19th-century businesswoman and activist, and a leader in the fight for women’s suffrage and labor reforms. In 1894, a remarkably self-possessed American woman, with no formal education to speak of, stood before a British court seeking damages for libel from the trustees of the British Museum.” My research into ghostwriting indicates that people who are uneducated and enter fields where writing or speeches are central are puppets who are being manipulated by their ghostwriter, or whoever is paying for their ghostwriter. Thus, this is hardly an inspirational account of this early female politician. Who exactly did she accuse of libel and why? Garnett is puffed as a gradual-riser in the hierarchy of the British Museum Library. In “Chapter Two: Mrs. Woodhull, a law unto herself” explains that Woodhull had found in this Museum “cataloging” of “archival material she insisted contained unflattering references to her.” This is a curious case, but instead of explaining it, the following couple of paragraphs are spent on philosophizing about the nature of this outrage. Her lawyer offered to drop the case if the museum removed the “offending publications”, “the museum’s trustees revealed the names of the vendor who suppled the publications to the museum”, or if it ran a “public apology”. The following paragraphs are digressive in speculating about the expense of a trial, and reputations, instead of giving a single detail about just what this offensive content was. Only in the following chapter is there a note that these materials had accused her of “immorality”. The source had apparently described her parents as “ignorant and violent” people. This is one of the most anti-sympathetic biographies imaginable.
“It was yet another stop along the unpredictable route that was Victoria Woodhull’s life. Born dirt-poor in an obscure Ohio settlement, Woodhull was the daughter of an illiterate mother entranced by the fad of Mesmerism—a therapeutic pseudoscience—and a swindler father whose cons exploited his two daughters.” It seems that Woodhull learned to scam from her father, rather than being exploited by him, as her libel lawsuit was blatantly designed to win money, since it was true that her parents were both “ignorant” and “violent”. “It was through her mother, though, that Woodhull familiarized herself with the supernatural realm, earning a degree of fame as a clairvoyant and her first taste of financial success… Despite a deeply troubled first marriage at the age of fourteen, countless attempts by the press to discredit her, and a wrongful jail sentence, Woodhull thrived through sheer determination and the strength of her bond with her sister Tennie. She co-founded a successful stock brokerage on Wall Street, launched a newspaper, and became the first woman to run for president. Hers was a rags-to-riches story that saw her cross paths with Karl Marx, Henry Ward Beecher, and Frederick Douglass.” “Chapter Eleven: Mr. Garnett Manages to connect the dots”: in 1849, Karl Marx had been exiled to London and began working at the same British Museum’s Reading Room as Woodhull. But instead of explaining how she intersected with Marx, it seems the author and the librarian blamed Marx, who the librarian said received helped from him in writing in German the Capital, and other works. Several pages later, there is finally an explanation that Woodhull’s Weekly later published Marx’s Manifesto, after which Marx was instructed to “expel Victoria from the International Workmen’s Association.” This made her turn away from communism. She had been expelled partly because she was petitioning for the party to support women’s suffrage. This is the first positive note about her, but this note is inserted in the middle of unreadable digressions.
“…A radical visionary who made defying mores a habit and brought to the fore societal and political issues still being addressed today.”
There indeed needs to be a biography of this woman, but this is not a good attempt at it. Somebody with detachment should reconsider just what the evidence is stating this woman did to win where other women failed.
--Pennsylvania Literary Journal: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-summer-2025/

An in-depth look into an incredible life, The Improbable Victoria Woodhull tells the life story of everything she over came to become accomplished and a leader in her field. It's a harrowing tale, but full of triumphs over the horrors and disappointments of life.

I just finished this book and really enjoyed learning about Victoria and her progressive life when women were not supposed to be or allowed to be progressive. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for this honest review.
However, I felt the author focused on many other people and subjects along the way, rather than Victoria herself. Yes, these subjects may have impacted her life and her decisions, or how she defied the standards women were expected to uphold, but I found myself just wanting to read through the other bits to hurry up and get back to Victoria and her sister Tennie. I suppose it is hard to find information on subject matters over 100 years ago, so authors have to take liberties to fill a book and add information that was going on at the time. This happens with a lot of nonfiction.
The author's writing style was easy to read, digest, and well-ordered. I never felt like they jumped back and forth from one event to another and back again. I did feel like the opening of the book draws you right in. You start off in a courtroom with Victoria, and she is suing for libel. This scene also introduces you to a Mr. Garnett of Britain, who is the primary source for all information on Victoria in this book. He is brought up many times throughout the book, and we are given thoughts on what Mr. Garnett might have been thinking of Victoria and her life choices, surmised by the author. I actually found this gave the reader a moment to pause and take in what you read about Victoria and gets the reader thinking more about what one would do in her shoes.
By the time you get to the end of the book, the author does mention in a few short sentences thrown into a chapter towards the end that she does not win the libel case. But it's disappointing that we do not get the same setup of the scene and how it was played out, like at the start of the book with the setup of the trial and her questioning.
Overall, it's a good book—an easy read like I said. I read it for 3 hours on a plane ride home and was never bored, so that's saying something. I think Victoria has been one of those historical figures either written out of history or forgotten to time. This is unfortunate because I really believe she helped pave the way for women's rights! Despite its flaws, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about a remarkable woman who deserves more recognition. Victoria Woodhull's story is worth telling, and this book does a decent job of bringing her back into the spotlight.

A well written and well researched story of Victoria Woodhull. She was married at 14, she was one of the women who fought for women’s rights and even ran for president. A must read!