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Winner of the Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars
The Pen and the People
English Letter Writers 1660-1800
Susan Whyman
400 pages
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34 b/w halftones
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234x156mm
978-0-19-953244-5
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Hardback
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08 October 2009
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- A whole new perspective on popular literacy in England
- Reconstructs actual dialogues between correspondents - brings to life the intimate lives of ordinary people
- Examines the role of popular letter writing on reading and the rise of the novel
- Full appendix presenting the newly discovered archives - includes biographical details of letter writers and the subjects they wrote about
Susan Whyman draws on a hidden world of previously unknown letter writers to explore bold new ideas about the history of writing, reading and the novel. Capturing actual dialogues of people discussing subjects as diverse as marriage, poverty, poetry, and the emotional lives of servants, The Pen and the People will be enjoyed by everyone interested in history, literature, and the intimate experiences of ordinary people.
Based on over thirty-five previously unknown letter collections, it tells the stories of workers and the middling sort - a Yorkshire
bridle maker, a female domestic servant, a Derbyshire wheelwright, an untrained woman writing poetry and short stories, as well as merchants and their families. Their ordinary backgrounds and extraordinary writings challenge accepted views that popular literacy was rare in England before 1800.
This democratization of letter writing could never have occurred without the development of the Royal Mail. Drawing on new information gleaned from personal letters, Whyman reveals how the Post Office had altered the rhythms of daily life long before the nineteenth century. As the pen, the post, and the people became increasingly connected, so too were eighteenth-century society and culture slowly and subtly
transformed.Readership: Students, scholars, and general readers interested in eighteenth-century history, literature, and the lives of ordinary people.
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Susan Whyman, Independent Historian, formerly at Princeton University
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"Impressive...breaks significant new ground." - History Today "The originality of The Pen and the People lies in the cavalcade of writers used by Whyman to reclaim a vanished social world." - Amanda Vickery, London Review of Books "The book is triumphantly successful. Our understanding of the culture and mentality of late Stuart and Georgian England is both broader and deeper after her work...a highly satisfying book." - Anthony Fletcher, History "Engaging...[and] provocative... The striking case studies of The Pen and the People, as well as the substantial archival body out of which they emerge, will certainly require a revision of the history of eighteenth-century
literacy. In addition, for scholars of the period's popular and literary print cultures, new and important questions have been raised about the role of the pen and the many humble people who wielded it in disseminating and shaping those cultures." - Betty A. Schellenberg, Huntington Library Quarterly "Whyman's work is important for challenging established views on popular literacy in the period. She is to be commended for the conscientious, exhaustive nature of her research... Whyman has uncovered valuable family archives...which 'give voice' to the historically obscure and with a thrilling immediacy as, through these documents penned with no thought of publication, we are allowed the illicit pleasure of eavesdropping on words not meant for our ears, of
glimpsing the lives of individuals who lived over two hundred years ago." - Wendy Jones Nakanishi, English Studies "This is a fascinating book. Susan Whyman is to be applauded for following one excellent social history with another." - Rosemary O'Day, Journal of British Studies "Important...exceedingly well researched...valuable" - Gary Schneider, Reviews in History "A richly researched book...Whyman has woven a history of the importance of letter writing at this time, and a portrait of a people being formed through a democratizing popular culture of letter writing." - Mary O'Connor, Review of English Studies "As with Whyman's earlier book of the Verney family ... the strength of
this one lies in the detailed and imaginative exposition of documentary sources, the close reading of texts, and the sympathetic engagement with people who are brought to life either as individuals or composites" - R. A. Houston, English Historical Review "As well as students of literary culture, historians will find this book valuable as a guide to epistolary sources." - Northern History
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PART ONE: CREATING A CULTURE OF LETTERS
Introduction: The Pen, the Post, and the People
1: Creating the Letter - How to Acquire Epistolary Literacy
2: Sending the Letter - The Post Office and the Politics of the Mail
PART TWO: CREATING A CULTURE OF LITERACY
3: Letters and Literacy - Farmers and Workers in Northern England
4: Letters of the Middling-Sort - Confronting Problems of Business, Religion, Gender, and Class
PART THREE: FROM LETTERS TO LITERATURE
5: Letter Writing and the Rise of the Novel - The Epistolary Literacy of Jane Johnson and Samuel Richardson
6: Letter Writing, Reading, and Literary Culture — The Johnson Family and Anna Miller
Conclusion: Letter Writing and Eighteenth-Century Culture - Findings, Patterns, and Impacts
Appendices
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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