George Washington's Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Curtis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794-1851 (WOMEN'S DIARIES AND LETTERS OF THE SOUTH)

biography

This collection of intimate, chatty letters from Washington's adopted daughter to her lifelong friend in Philadelphia charts the narrowing compass of her life, from youthful exuberance as the darling of the president's family and a well-educated observer of public life to an embittered wife of an unambitious, aloof husband and a mother who watched her children die. The letters brim with the stuff of private lives--marriage prospects, family doings, church matters, local gossip, health, and weather--but are silent on the great public issues of the day, save for Lewis's gushing during Lafayette's triumphal tour and one veiled comment on slavery. Revealing much about the daily concerns of a Southern woman over a lifetime, these letters remind us that, even as the nation was coming apart, the private worlds of women (and men) were held together by family, faith, and friendships. Recommended for college libraries.
- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.