The Book Prize Index

Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier

Alfred F. Young

The story of the woman who fought in the American Revolution passing as a man. Serving for seventeen months, she accomplished her deception by becoming an outstanding soldier. Young shows us why and how she carried it off. He reconstructs her early life as an indentured servant; her young adulthood as a weaver, teacher, and religious rebel; and her military career in the light infantry--consisting of dangerous duty that demanded constant vigilance--followed by service as an orderly to a general at West Point. Young also examines her postwar life as a wife and mother on a hardscrabble farm in Massachusetts, her collaboration on the book that made her a celebrity and sent her on a yearlong lecture tour through New England and New York in 1802-03, and her relentless and partially successful quest for veterans' benefits.--From publisher description.

BiographyBiography · high confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Gannett, deborah sampson, 1760-1827 -> BiographyAmerican Civil WarSoldiers, Veterans & Combat ExperienceWar & Military Strategy

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History2004FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Deborah Sampson92%

  2. 02 Central places

    • West Point80%
    Show lower-confidence suggestions

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Massachusetts55%
    • New England and New York40%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    The biography argues that Deborah Sampson’s success in passing as a man—by mastering military discipline and constant vigilance—explains how she carried out an effective Continental soldier’s service.

    Model confidence 52%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.