Fannie Never Flinched
One Woman's Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights
"Fannie Sellins was a labor organizer -- and from all accounts, she was an exceptional one. But she paid with her life."
When immigrant women earning poverty wages in St. Louis sweatshops voted to strike, Fannie Sellins was there. When destitute coal miners dared to unionize in West Virginia, Fannie was there.
When hired gunmen threatened, beat and shot miners walking the picket line in Pennsylvania, Fannie was there. Mine operators would have paid any price to get rid of Fannie. They threatened to kill her, but Fannie refused to go away.
The United Mine Workers Journal called her an "Angel of Mercy," who went into the miners' homes, encouraging their wives and caring for the sick and dying. "Whenever there was a strike, with its inevitable suffering, Mrs. Sellins was found, caring for the women and children through the dark days of the struggle."
Fannie Sellins (1872–1919) lived during the Gilded Age of American Industrialization, when the Carnegies and Morgans wore jewels, and their laborers wore rags. Fannie dreamed that America could achieve its ideals of equality and justice. She sacrificed her life for that dream, dying on the picket line in a hail of bullets.
When immigrant women earning poverty wages in St. Louis sweatshops voted to strike, Fannie Sellins was there. When destitute coal miners dared to unionize in West Virginia, Fannie was there.
When hired gunmen threatened, beat and shot miners walking the picket line in Pennsylvania, Fannie was there. Mine operators would have paid any price to get rid of Fannie. They threatened to kill her, but Fannie refused to go away.
The United Mine Workers Journal called her an "Angel of Mercy," who went into the miners' homes, encouraging their wives and caring for the sick and dying. "Whenever there was a strike, with its inevitable suffering, Mrs. Sellins was found, caring for the women and children through the dark days of the struggle."
Fannie Sellins (1872–1919) lived during the Gilded Age of American Industrialization, when the Carnegies and Morgans wore jewels, and their laborers wore rags. Fannie dreamed that America could achieve its ideals of equality and justice. She sacrificed her life for that dream, dying on the picket line in a hail of bullets.
- ★ Publishers Weekly
- ★School Library Journal
- ★Booklist
- CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
- Bank Street Best Books of the Year
- Booklist Editors' Choice
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FANNIE NEVER FLINCHED Book Trailer
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"Over six brief chapters, Farrell deftly places Sellins’s story within the larger context of immigration and industrialization at the time….Readers...shouldn’t miss this entrée to the subject...." Click to read this starred review...
"Over six brief chapters, Farrell deftly places Sellins’s story within the larger context of immigration and industrialization at the time….Readers...shouldn’t miss this entrée to the subject...." Click to read this starred review...
★
"The author may be addressing this stirring story of early union activist Fannie Sellins to middle-schoolers, but the rigor of her approach yields a book with solid scholarly features….Her story, richly illustrated with vintage photographs and documents, fairly leaps off the page, driving home the message that the work she fought for is far from over." Click here to read this starred review...
"The author may be addressing this stirring story of early union activist Fannie Sellins to middle-schoolers, but the rigor of her approach yields a book with solid scholarly features….Her story, richly illustrated with vintage photographs and documents, fairly leaps off the page, driving home the message that the work she fought for is far from over." Click here to read this starred review...
★
"An essential purchase for public or large school libraries interested in workers’ rights and social justice."
"An essential purchase for public or large school libraries interested in workers’ rights and social justice."
Kirkus Reviews: A cogent, well-documented, handsomely designed treatment of a heretofore forgotten hero of labor.
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"This is the kind of book we need to see on every school shelf across America." Read more here...
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"Farrell does not take sides when writing about the incident in which Sellins lost her life. She writes the facts as though she were there, ace reporter, after-the-fact—which she was. Yet, thanks to all her trustworthy research, what happened on that awful day is easy to surmise and horrible to believe. Not every hero survives.
Mary Cronk Farrell, thanks to Fannie Never Flinched, and her other titles, may be one today’s most influential and important historians in children’s literature." Read more here...
Mary Cronk Farrell, thanks to Fannie Never Flinched, and her other titles, may be one today’s most influential and important historians in children’s literature." Read more here...
"...a clear, incisive biography of this courageous lady, who, as she says, never flinched in the face of danger....Using photographs, documents and newspaper articles, Farrell chronicles the rise of Fannie's career, and puts it into the larger context of what was happening in industries all over the United States in this picture book for older readers. Read more here....
"While young readers may study a little bit about the labor movement in the United States, it is often impersonal. Focusing a movement around the actions of one person is a great way to encourage empathy for it by giving it a human face.
The formatting of this book is excellent-- while I'm not usually a fan of larger books (this is about 10" x 10"), this size allows plenty of photographs and a lot of space around the text. While it may seem silly, this is a HUGE selling point. Readers are often reluctant to pick up books filled with dense blocks of text and few pictures." Read more here...
Today we're excited to chat with Mary Cronk Farrell, author of Fannie Never Flinched!
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book? Read interview on YABC...
The formatting of this book is excellent-- while I'm not usually a fan of larger books (this is about 10" x 10"), this size allows plenty of photographs and a lot of space around the text. While it may seem silly, this is a HUGE selling point. Readers are often reluctant to pick up books filled with dense blocks of text and few pictures." Read more here...
Today we're excited to chat with Mary Cronk Farrell, author of Fannie Never Flinched!
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book? Read interview on YABC...
The Rick Smith Show is a labor radio program from Central Pennsylvania. The show covers state and local politics and national issues. Thanks, Rick for recommending people put FANNIE NEVER FLINCHED on there Christmas list!
Author of "Fannie Never Flinched” joins Rick to discuss her recent kids book on labor organizer Fannie Sellins and explain what convinced her to write this book and what she hopes will be learned from its pages.
Author of "Fannie Never Flinched” joins Rick to discuss her recent kids book on labor organizer Fannie Sellins and explain what convinced her to write this book and what she hopes will be learned from its pages.
Pittsburgh's News Source
"Farrell chose Pittsburgh to introduce her book because of the story's strong ties to the region.
The book is about Fannie Sellins, an organizer for the United Mine Workers who was gunned down in Brackenridge on the eve of a nationwide steel strike, Aug. 26, 1919. A historical marker at Union Cemetery, Arnold, honors her and Joseph Starzelski, a miner also killed that day. They were buried in Union Cemetery." Read more here...
"Farrell chose Pittsburgh to introduce her book because of the story's strong ties to the region.
The book is about Fannie Sellins, an organizer for the United Mine Workers who was gunned down in Brackenridge on the eve of a nationwide steel strike, Aug. 26, 1919. A historical marker at Union Cemetery, Arnold, honors her and Joseph Starzelski, a miner also killed that day. They were buried in Union Cemetery." Read more here...