Sara Day

A historian uncovers the long-running affair between a famous 19th century author and a female conservationist—through love letters written in code.

The Unitarian minister, author, and peace activist Edward Everett Hale was one of the most respected moral leaders of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Yet, for twenty-five years, he lived a double life. Harriet Freeman worked for a time as Hale’s secretary, but as they make abundantly clear in some 3,000 love letters, they were also lovers—and perhaps even soul mates. 

Hale’s many biographers depicted his marriage as unerringly faithful, despite the available evidence to the contrary. Now historian Sara Day corrects the record with this fascinating chronicle of Hale and Freeman’s secret romance. With extensive research into the lives of both figures, Day also succeeds in cracking the lovers’ code.

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