C. V. (Catherine Van Valkenburg) Waite

author

C. V. (Catherine Van Valkenburg) Waite

1829–1913

A bold 19th-century writer and reformer, she combined frontier storytelling with a life spent pushing against the limits placed on women. Her work is closely tied to the causes she championed, especially women’s rights and social reform.

1 Audiobook

The Mormon Prophet and His Harem Or, An Authentic History of Brigham Young, His Numerous Wives and Children

The Mormon Prophet and His Harem Or, An Authentic History of Brigham Young, His Numerous Wives and Children

by C. V. (Catherine Van Valkenburg) Waite

About the author

Born in Dumfries, Ontario, on January 30, 1829, Catharine Van Valkenburg Waite became known in the United States as a writer, lawyer, businesswoman, and women's suffrage activist. She studied at Oberlin College and later, in the 1880s, pursued legal training at what became Northwestern University Law School.

Waite wrote under the name C. V. Waite and is remembered for books including Adventures in the Far West; and Life among the Mormons and The Mormon Prophet and His Harem. Her writing often drew on western travel, religion, and public controversy, and it reflects the energetic, reform-minded world she moved in.

Beyond her books, she played an active role in the suffrage movement in Chicago and was part of a generation of women who pushed into professional and public life long before that was common. She died in Chicago, Illinois, on November 9, 1913, leaving behind a career that joined authorship with activism.