Clarina Nichols died more than a quarter-century before Kansas became the eighth state to grant women the right to vote in 1912. But the dedicated reformer – a transplanted New England journalist – was instrumental in the breakthrough, breaking the taboo of speaking up at male-dominated gatherings, signing petitions, and flexing political muscle decades earlier.

Diane Eickhoff, a Kansas City-based historian, writer, and editor, explores Nichols’ remarkable story in a discussion of her new book, a young adult adaptation of her 2006 biography Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights. Nichols turned what could have been a tragic life story into triumph, escaping an abusive first marriage to become a leader in the temperance, abolition, and suffrage movements of the 19th century.