First Lady of Letters: Judith Sargent Murray and the Struggle for Female Independence

Sheila L. Skemp

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2009

First Lady of Letters

Judith Sargent Murray and the Struggle for Female Independence

Sheila L. Skemp

In the series Early American Studies

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812203523

Overview
Contents

About this book

Thanks to the recent discovery of Judith Sargent Murray's papers—including some 2,500 personal letters—Sheila L. Skemp has documented the compelling story of a talented and most unusual eighteenth-century woman.

Author / Editor information

Sheila L. Skemp is Clare Leslie Marquette Professor of History at the University of Mississippi.

Reviews

"I am deeply grateful to Skemp for providing us with such a comprehensive perspective on Murray and for helping bring her out of the shadows and into the limelight shared by contemporaries such as Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren. . . . What is most valuable about this book, however, is Skemp's wonderful depiction of the transition in the early Republic as old New England families were forced to share power and authority with the rising classes."—William and Mary Quarterly

"First Lady of Letters is an admirable history of this all-but-forgotten Federalist-era women's rights advocate, who argued powerfully that girls could shine as brightly as boys if only they were given the benefits of a classical education and parents who encouraged them to 'reverence themselves.'"—Wall Street Journal

"Skemp's nimble selection of the details. . . reveal in stunning, sad, and human detail the mind and life of a brilliant woman who advocated for women's equality well before Mary Wollstonecraft."—Resources for American Literary Study

"Accessibly written, and with contextual material involving both Murray's times and up-to-date historical thinking about Enlightenment women and the early republic, the book will become the starting point for all future work about Murray and women writers before the Jacksonian period."—American Historical Review

"Sheila Skemp gives readers unprecedented access to Murray's private writing, shared almost exclusively with family members and close friends, at these and other momentous occasions in her exceptional new biography. Skemp takes us beyond Murray's more familiar published work to her richly descriptive thoughts on the terrors of childbirth; travels; visits with the likes of Washington and John Adams; and the travails of educating her daughter, two girls also under her stewardship, and the boisterous sons of her brother, who had been sent north from Natchez with Harvard in their sights."—Eighteenth-Century Studies

"A very fine biography, one that is not only an excellent work of scholarship but also highly readable and engaging. In mining and analyzing new materials, Skemp has turned the historical spotlight on an author and critic worthy of ongoing consideration."—New England Quarterly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
PART I. Rebellions: 1769–1784
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Chapter 1. “This Remote Spot” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Chapter 2. Universal Salvation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Chapter 3. Independence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Chapter 4. Creating a Genteel Nation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
PART II. Republic of Letters: 1783–1798
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Chapter 5. “Sweet Peace” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Chapter 6. A Belle Passion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Chapter 7. A Wider World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Chapter 8. A Career of Fame Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Chapter 9. “A School of Virtue” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234
Chapter 10. Federalist Muse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
PART III. Retreat: 1798–1820
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Chapter 11. “We Are Fallen on Evil Times” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Chapter 12. Republican Daughters, Republican Sons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	334
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	381
Archival Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	473
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	483

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 512
Illustrations
- Other: 10 illus.
Keywords: American History; Biography; Women's Studies; Gender Studies; Literature; American Studies; Biography; Autobiography; Gender Studies; Literature; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: August 24, 2011
ISBN: 9780812203523