Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) seems to have been one of those people who are not only ahead of their own times but probably also in advance of ours. Long before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, Woodhull ran twice for president as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party. But running for president was only a sideline in her multifaceted career.
Starting out as a clairvoyant "healer," the attractive brunette Victoria -along with her voluptuous blonde younger sister Tennessee-was wisely "inspired" to offer her services to millionaire railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had a weakness for good-looking women bearing spiritualist gifts. With Vanderbilt's backing, the enterprising sisters went into business as Wall Street's first female stockbrokers and made a small fortune that enabled them to publish their own newspaper and to pursue Woodhull's political goals.
Although the 32-year-old "robber baroness" was a newcomer to the suffrage movement, her charisma, ready funds and quick intelligence won her a measure of acceptance among the more established feminists, many of whom were nonetheless alarmed by her flamboyant ways. Indeed, years later, when the history of the movement was written, Woodhull's name was virtually expunged from the roll of feminist heroines.
Woodhull was one of those larger-than-life 19th-century originals whose energy and idealism seem to epitomize the dynamic spirit of the age. But, as her new biographer, Lois Beachy Underhill, discovered in the course of researching "The Woman Who Ran for President" (Bridge Works, 347 pages, $23.50), only one full-length biography had been written about her: a rather sensationalistic and censorious account called "The Terrible Siren," which appeared a year after her death.
Ms. Underhill, a former advertising executive, has pieced together a far more convincing portrait, based on an impressive amount of original research. Her attitude toward her subject is sympathetic without being sycophantic, intelligently critical but never condescending.
An outspoken advocate of "free love," Woodhull was involved in a number of controversies, including a run-in with the powerful preacher Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe). Informed about the reverend's philandering by the disgruntled husband of one of his congregants, Woodhull further verified the truth of the accusation by seducing Beecher herself. Her aim was not to discredit him (indeed, she commended his "amativeness"), but rather to prompt him to come forward and preach the free love he secretly practiced a sort of proto-"outing." One of the many fascinating things we learn from Ms. Underhill's lively biography is that it was not so much her espousal of free love that ultimately undermined Woodhull's political career as her burgeoning interest in communism. While her frank talk about love and sex met a surprisingly favorable reception from the press, her forays into Marxism were met by deafening silence. In the long run, Ms. Underhill feels, Woodhull's dislike of collectivism outweighed her attraction to a system that had first impressed her as admirably "Christian" in its aims. She also found time to make the world a little safer for capitalism by exposing fraudulent activities that were then rampant in the stock market.
Few Victorian women led a life as venturesome as Woodhull's.