Background
Muhlenfeld was born on November 12, 1944 in Washington, D.C., United States; the daughter of Merle Roberts and Cornelia Elizabeth (Herring) Showalter.
(Elisabeth Muhlenfeld's expert biography utilizes Mrs. Che...)
Elisabeth Muhlenfeld's expert biography utilizes Mrs. Chesnut's autobiographical writings, her papers, and those of her family, as well as published sources. It traces her life in South Carolina from her childhood, as the daughter of a governor and United States senator, through her schooling and her marriage to James Chesnut, Jr., the son of a wealthy South Carolina planter. During the war her husband served as an aide to P. G. T. Beauregard and to Jefferson Davis, achieving the rank of general. Muhlenfeld emphasizes Mary Chesnut's last twenty years, when she helped her family through the intricacies of repaying immense debts incurred during the Civil War, rebuilding wrecked homes, and reestablishing some measure of order and security. These were also the years of her serious writing. She experimented with fiction, writing three novels and translating others from the French; and in 1881 she began the last revisions of her Civil War journal. In the descriptive passages, characterizations, thematic patterns, and overall structure of the revised journal, Chesnut employed the techniques she had learned by writing fiction. Besides adding to our knowledge of this unusual nineteenth-century southern woman, Mary Boykin Chesnut: A Biography enhances our knowledge of the history of women in general as it delineates the transformation of a wartime diary into the chronicle that remains a major document in southern history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807118044/?tag=2022091-20
(This volume, which spans the long period from the sixteen...)
This volume, which spans the long period from the sixteenth century through the Civil War era, is remarkable for the religious, racial, ethnic, and class diversity of the women it features. Essays on plantation mistresses, overseers' wives, nonslaveholding women from the upcountry, slave women, and free black women in antebellum Charleston are certain to challenge notions about the slave South and about the significance of women to the state's economy. South Carolina's unusual history of religious tolerance is explored through the experiences of women of various faiths, and accounts of women from Europe, the West Indies, and other colonies reflect the diverse origins of the state's immigrants.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820329363/?tag=2022091-20
Muhlenfeld was born on November 12, 1944 in Washington, D.C., United States; the daughter of Merle Roberts and Cornelia Elizabeth (Herring) Showalter.
Muhlenfeld graduated with Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Goucher College in 1966. Seven years later she earned her Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas in 1973. Also in 1978, she was given a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Southern California.
Muhlenfeld began her career as a research assistant and administrative assistant of southern studies program at the University of Southern California in 1975. Three years later she took a position of an assistant of professor of English at Florida State University. Then in 1982, she was an associate professor at the same university.
In 1984, Elisabeth was appointed a dean of undergraduate studies at Florida State University. She worked as a director of undergraduate and graduate studies, associate department chairman of English and professor of English at that university from 1987 to 1996. Since 1995 Muhlenfeld became a president at Sweet Briar College and held it until 2009.
Muhlenfeld is active in many professional and civic organizations. She speaks frequently on numerous topics including issues affecting undergraduate education, and she advocates for women’s colleges.
(This volume, which spans the long period from the sixteen...)
(Elisabeth Muhlenfeld's expert biography utilizes Mrs. Che...)
Muhlenfeld is a member of Modern Language Association, St. George Tucker Society, Southern Association of Women Historians, William Faulkner Society and Phi Kappa Phi.
On September 10, 1966 Elisabeth Muhlenfeld married Edward F. Muhlenfeld, with whom she divorced in 1975. Then on June 5, 1982 she married Laurin A. Wollan. They have four children and six grandchildren.