Mercy Otis Warren: Selected Letters

This volume gathers more than one hundred letters-most of them previously unpublished-written by Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814).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.

Author: Mercy Otis Warren
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 02/15/2009
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.32lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780820326801

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 03/13/2009 pg. 19
Choice 02/01/2010

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.