Cosella Wayne

The first novel written and published in English by an American Jewish woman.

Published serially in the spiritualist journal Banner of Light­ in 1860, Cosella Wayne, or Will and Destiny is the first coming-of-age novel to depict Jews in the United States and transforms what we know about the history of early American Jewish literature. The novel never appeared in book form, went unmentioned in Jewish newspapers of the day, and studies of nineteenth-century American Jewish literature ignore it completely. Yet the novel anticipates central themes of American Jewish writing: intermarriage, generational tension, family dysfunction, Jewish-Christian relations, immigration, poverty, the place of women in Jewish life, the nature of romantic love, and the tension between destiny and free will.

The narrative recounts a relationship between an abusive Jewish father and the rebellious daughter he molested as well as that daughter's efforts at finding a place in the complex social fabric of nineteenth-century America. It is also unique in portraying such themes as an unmarried Jewish woman's descent into poverty, her forlorn years as a starving orphaned seamstress, her apostasy and return to Judaism, and her quest to be both Jewish and a spiritualist at one and the same time.

Jonathan Sarna, who introduces the volume, discovered Cosella Wayne while pursuing research at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem. This edition is supplemented with Cora Wilburn's recently rediscovered diary, selections from which are reprinted in the appendix. Together, these materials help to situate Cosella Wayne within the life and times of one of nineteenth-century American Jewry's least known and yet most prolific female authors.

• Acknowledgments
• Editor's Introduction
• A Note on the Text
• Cosella Wayne: Or, Will and Destiny
• Introduction
• 1. A Wandering Childhood
• 2. The Rhine Voyage
• 3. Foreboding
• 4. The Watcher by the Tomb
• 5. The Jewish Betrothal
• 6. Awakening
• 7. The Dawn of the New Life
• 8. The Dream's Reply
• 9. Bereavement
• 10. The Web of Destiny
• 11. The Second Sorrow
• 12. Light on the Pathway
• 13. The Teachings of the Fathers
• 14. Temptation and Trial
• 15. The Virgin's Shrine
• 16. The Step into the World
• 17. Spirit Teachings
• 18. Changes
• 19. Retribution
• 20. Manasseh's Letter
• 21. Above the Clouds of Earth
• 22. The Realities of Life
• 23. Toil and Suffering
• 24. The Mission of the Beautiful
• 25. The Hour before Day
• 26. Unrecognized
• 27. Realization
• 28. The River of Death, and the Waters of Life
• 29. Fraternal and Heavenly Union
• Notes to Cosella Wayne
• Selections from the Diary of Cora Wilburn (1844-1848)

Cora Wilburn (1824-1906), born Henrietta Pulfermacher, emigrated from France to the United States under the name Henretty Jackson in 1848. Her novels, essays and poems mostly appeared in rare spiritualist journals and Jewish periodicals.

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and directs its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He is also chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History. He is author or editor of more than thirty books on American Jewish history and life, including American Judaism: A History.

Illustrations	1 black & white figure
Pages	448
Date Published	30 Oct 2019
Publisher	The University of Alabama Press
Series	Jews and Judaism: History and Culture Series
Language	English
Dimensions	228 x 152 x 33

Jonathan Sarna's edition of Cosella Wayne renders accessible to general readers-as well as to students and scholars of modern history, women's and gender studies, religion, and Jewish studies-the gripping tale of the global adventures and personal travails of its inimitable heroine, Cosella Wayne. Engrossing as a work of literature and enthralling as a window onto the life and world of its remarkable author, Cora Wilburn, Cosella Wayne is a family saga that grapples mightily with the nature of religious conversion, the implications of gender, the oppressiveness of poverty, and the destructiveness of child abuse. It paints intimate portraits of nineteenth-century Jewish and Spiritualist practices as well as of a courageous young woman's search for truth, love, and belonging. This highly readable edition will be particularly welcome in university classrooms, where it will draw students deep into the fundamental questions that animate a range of disciplines." - Paola Tartakoff, Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University