Aunt Bertha's Trunk offers something for every reader through a series of short stories and two novellas: for women, an opportunity to see just how badly women were treated at the turn of the century, to eavesdrop on conversations involving women's rights between Harriet "Hattie" Beecher Stowe and Julia Ward Howe when they meet by accident in 1846 at a health spa in Vermont, and to witness Hattie expressing her conviction that an outer force has directed the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin. For men, a chance to participate in Civil War battles as they unfold and become transfixed by the actions of a demonic murderer. For all readers, a chance to spend time with Mark Twain, John Brown, and Frederick Douglass, who are facing their own challenges.

Hattie and Julia live in a fascinating time when the country is preparing for war and then shaking off its effects, a time when women are struggling to assert their rights, and a time when the country is transitioning from Victorian purity to a swifter current. Here the reader will discover two high-spirited representatives of their age eager to describe in detail their negative views about a society that denies them certain key rights, including the right to vote.

Author Rick Taylor grew up in the East End of Pittsburgh and graduated from Denison University, where he majored in English with an emphasis on writing. He authored several short stories before and after transitioning to writing legal briefs following his graduation from Pitt Law School. But the writing bug never left him. He has published several collections of poetry and two novels, Curse of the Klondike and Ida Mae and Her Passage to Chautauqua. His poetry has been featured in literary journals and newspapers. His poem "Foxfire" received a Penn Writers Poetry Award, and several poems have been featured in Good News, a local Shepherdstown newspaper, and in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. For more information, please visit: www.readricktaylor.com