What is the title and author of the novel that was said to have started a “great big war”?

The book is Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the author is Harriet Beecher Stowe. Abraham Lincoln is said to have made this remark to her, and the exact quote is similar to "So you're the little lady who wrote the book that started this big war."

Uncle Tom's Cabin did indeed fan the flames of abolition in the years before the Civil War. Northerners were horrified that Southerners could be so cruel. They felt...

The book is Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the author is Harriet Beecher Stowe. Abraham Lincoln is said to have made this remark to her, and the exact quote is similar to "So you're the little lady who wrote the book that started this big war."

Uncle Tom's Cabin did indeed fan the flames of abolition in the years before the Civil War. Northerners were horrified that Southerners could be so cruel. They felt empathy for the slaves in the book. There were even stage productions of the book—during one stage production, someone pulled a gun and shot and killed one of the dogs that were chasing the "slaves" one the stage. Southerners claimed that the book was a collection of lies. Stowe never traveled to the South, so she could not write accurately on the subject. In some Southern areas the book was banned. Some Southern writers wrote about slaves who were happy to be slaves. These books did not have the staying power of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe's novel helped to put a human face on the slavery issue in the 1850s and made people feel as though the nation had to decide whether or not it was to be free.