Mercy Otis Warren: Selected Letters

Mercy Otis Warren (Edited by Jeffrey H. Richards and Sharon M. Harris)

ISBN 10: 0820326801 / ISBN 13: 9780820326801

Published by The University of Georgia Press, Athens & London, 2009

About this Item

The hardcover edition is in very good condition, with a dust jacket exhibiting minor edge wear and slight tears. The binding remains strong, ensuring durability for continued use and study. Internally, the pages are clean and free from inscriptions or markings, making it an ideal copy for collectors and historians alike. Minor edge wear and slight tears.

Seller Inventory # A16-B8-GZZ-ALT-0021

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mercy Otis Warren: Selected Letters
• Publisher: The University of Georgia Press, Athens & London
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820326801
• ISBN 13: 9780820326801
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

This volume gathers more than one hundred letters-most of them previously unpublished-written by Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814). Warren, whose works include a three-volume history of the American Revolution as well as plays and poems, was a major literary figure of her era and one of the most important American women writers of the eighteenth century. Her correspondents included Martha and George Washington, Abigail and John Adams, and Catharine Macaulay.

Until now, Warren's letters have been published sporadically, in small numbers, and mainly to help complete the collected correspondence of some of the famous men to whom she wrote. This volume addresses that imbalance by focusing on Warren's letters to her family members and other women. As they flesh out our view of Warren and correct some misconceptions about her, the letters offer a wealth of insights into eighteenth-century American culture, including social customs, women's concerns, political and economic conditions, medical issues, and attitudes on child rearing.

Letters Warren sent to other women who had lost family members (Warren herself lost three children) reveal her sympathies; letters to a favorite son, Winslow, show her sharing her ambitions with a child who resisted her advice. What readers of other Warren letters may have only sensed about her is now revealed more fully: she was a woman of considerable intellect, religious faith, compassion, literary intelligence, and acute sensitivity to the historical moment of even everyday events in the new American republic.

About the Author

Jeffrey H. Richards (Editor)
JEFFREY H. RICHARDS is a professor of English at Old Dominion University and author of a literary biography of Mercy Otis Warren among other books.

Sharon M. Harris (Editor)
SHARON M. HARRIS is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut. The author or editor of numerous books, she is founder of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers.