Dearest Hugh: The Courtship Letters of Gabrielle Drake and Hugh Mccoll, 1900 1901 (WOMEN'S DIARIES AND LETTERS OF THE SOUTH) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1570037140 ISBN 13: 9781570037146

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr, 2008

Synopsis

Dearest Hugh offers a window into courtship during the early twentieth century through a collection of three hundred love letters exchanged between Gabrielle Drake and Hugh McColl from 1900 to 1901, illustrating the hopes and sacrifices of an upper-class couple forging a marriage in a small southern town.A resident of Bennettsville, South Carolina, Hugh McColl enjoyed the social status that came with being the son of the president of the Bank of Marlboro. The daughter of the clerk of court for Marlboro County, Gabrielle Drake was a new graduate of Converse College who was then teaching at Bennettsville Graded School. The couple became engaged in May of 1901 and wed that November. Although most of their interactions were chaperoned, Hugh and Gabrielle could speak more freely in their correspondence and exchanged notes - often two or three a day - detailing their private emotions, desires, and anxieties. The letters address equality within the relationship, Gabrielle's career, choosing furnishing a home, and allocation of household chores.Hugh's letters are earnest, sincere, affectionate, and sometimes suggestive. Gabrielle's writings are coquettish and playful, but she also anguishes over choosing between a career and a spouse. The attitudes expressed by both Hugh and Gabrielle also speak to the ambitious drive and community-minded dedication the McColls would later instill in their family, including grandson Hugh McColl, the former president and CEO of Bank of America.Hurley's introduction places the correspondence into the broader context of recent scholarship on courtship rituals and the changing educational and social status for women during this time in American life.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"Suzanne Hurley's skillfully edited collection offers revealing insights into courtship and marriage at the beginning of the twentieth century. These rich letters bring an earlier time and a delightful couple to life as they struggle to come to terms with marriage and gender expectations in a rapidly changing world. Hurley's engaging introduction places Drake and McColl in the context of their in the small-town middle-class Southern world. Dearest Hugh is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand marriage in an earlier age."--Melissa Walker, editor of Country Women Cope with Hard Times: A Collection of Oral Histories

"Through a collection of hundreds of love letters, Dearest Hugh provides an intimate glimpse into early-twentieth-century courtship practices as experienced by members of the prominent McColl and Drake families of Bennettsville, South Carolina, while also offering a wealth of genealogical and historical insights into the couple's hometown and its surroundings. With her vast knowledge of Marlboro County, Suzanne Hurley gives readers a variety of local historical facts and connects this fascinating couple's courtship to prevailing customs of their time. From banks and buggies to families and farms, Dearest Hugh paints an informative, enlightening, and entertaining portrait of life and love in small-town South Carolina during the dawn of the twentieth century. This is a welcome addition to literature on our local history."--William Light Kinney, Jr., editor and publisher, Marlboro Herald-Advocate, Bennettsville, South Carolina

About the Author:

A Marlboro County native, Suzanne Cameron Linder Hurley is the author of seven previous books, including A River in Time and The Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River. She earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of South Carolina, where she has been a research fellow in the Institute for Southern Studies. Hurley lives in Davidson, North Carolina.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1570037140
• ISBN 13: 9781570037146
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 164
• Editor: Hurley Suzanne Cameron Linder