Katy: The Woman Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
In 1762, Mary Katharine “Katy” Goddard and her widowed mother, Sarah, leave their beloved home in New London, Connecticut, for Providence, Rhode Island, at the behest of Katy’s mercurial brother, William, who has established a printing business there. After the women set William’s hopelessly disorganized shop and its demoralized employees to rights, Sarah makes a proposal to Katy: that she learn the printing trade herself.
Although I live in the state—Maryland—where Katy performed her most famous printing task and spent her last years, I had never heard of her, so I am glad to see that Bolté has taken on the task of bringing the story of this independent, self-reliant woman to a wider audience. The research is sound—among other things, readers will learn a bit about the printing process—and Bolté paints vivid pictures of the various locales in which Katy finds herself. I did find the ending of the novel somewhat abrupt, given my interest in seeing how Katy’s business affairs turned out, but Bolté supplies us with an informative author’s note. I’m off to track down more information about Katy.
