The wittiest woman in America is dead. There are others who say many brilliant things; but I doubt if there is another so spontaneously and pointedly witty, in the sense that Sidney Smith was witty. So wrote famed writer, Mary Clemmer Ames, about her friend, Phoebe Cary. Brilliant, witty, iconoclastic, Alice and Phoebe Cary were much beloved writers and poets of the Victorian period. Praised by influential critics including Edgar Allan Poe, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, and Horace Greeley, their work today seems very modern. Their famous salon in New York hosted many of the intellectual and literary luminaries of their day. Here they are brought to life in a lively and beautiful rendering that will put you into their parlor and make you wish you'd been part of their salon. Alice was the poet, Phoebe the lyricist (and poet), both of them advocates for women's rights.