Intimate Friends & Brilliant Minds from Bygone New York On Sunday evenings from 1850 to 1871, the poets Alice and Phoebe Cary host New York?s choicest, most cosmopolitan literary salon--the first American ?bluestocking? of its kind. The character-driven plot follows the lives of the energetic sisters in their rise to success. It is a portrait of intellectual, independent women, i.e. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Louise Booth, Fanny Fern and others, who challenge laws and mindsets, breaking the glass ceiling of their day. Their intimate story parallels the historic deeds and events involving not only the women, but their extraordinary group of close men friends, including Horace Greeley, P.T. Barnum, Bayard Taylor, and John Greenleaf Whittier. Horace Greeley called Phoebe ?the wittiest woman in America?, and Edgar Allan Poe described Alice?s poem, Pictures of Memory, one of the most musically perfect lyrics in the English language?. Before, during, and after the Civil War, abolition, suffrage, religion, politics, and social reform are heated issues. There is adventure, discovery, and financial chaos. In the ambiance of Alice and Phoebe?s cozy home on 20th Street, philosophy, politics, and literature mingle with fortune, rank, and wit. America comes into its own in literature and New York takes on world prominence.