Cynthia Wolff, Associate Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, takes a look at the female child as a literary figure in Post Civil War America. She focuses on the portraits of female children in early American literature, the wide appeal and popularity of these noted literary heroines, and the national need they fulfilled. Wolff delivered her speech August 12, 1975 in the Student Union Colonial Lounge at the University of Massachusetts. Produced by WFCR, Amherst, Massachusetts.