Epistolary Practices

Letter Writing in America before Telecommunications

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century, Reference & Language, Language Arts
Cover of the book Epistolary Practices by William Merrill Decker, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William Merrill Decker ISBN: 9780807866634
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: November 9, 2000
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: William Merrill Decker
ISBN: 9780807866634
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: November 9, 2000
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

Letters have long been read as primary sources for biography and
history, but their performative, fictive, and textual dimensions
have only recently attracted serious notice. In this book, William Merrill Decker examines the place of the personal letter in American popular and literary culture from the colonial to the
postmodern period.
After offering an overview of the genre, Decker explores epistolary practices that coincide with American experiences of
space, settlement, separation, and reunion. He discusses letters
written by such well-known and well-educated persons as John
Winthrop, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John
Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, Henry James, and Alice James, but also letters by persons who, except in their correspondence, were not writers at all: indentured servants, New England factory workers, slaves, soldiers, and Western pioneers. Individual chapters explore the letter writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, and Henry Adams--three of America's most ambitious, accomplished, and theoretically astute letter writers. Finally, Decker considers the ongoing transformation of letter writing in the electronic age.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Letters have long been read as primary sources for biography and
history, but their performative, fictive, and textual dimensions
have only recently attracted serious notice. In this book, William Merrill Decker examines the place of the personal letter in American popular and literary culture from the colonial to the
postmodern period.
After offering an overview of the genre, Decker explores epistolary practices that coincide with American experiences of
space, settlement, separation, and reunion. He discusses letters
written by such well-known and well-educated persons as John
Winthrop, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John
Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, Henry James, and Alice James, but also letters by persons who, except in their correspondence, were not writers at all: indentured servants, New England factory workers, slaves, soldiers, and Western pioneers. Individual chapters explore the letter writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, and Henry Adams--three of America's most ambitious, accomplished, and theoretically astute letter writers. Finally, Decker considers the ongoing transformation of letter writing in the electronic age.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book Carolina Catch by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Conflicting Missions by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Exceptional Spaces by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Hard Work Is Not Enough by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Makers by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Chicken by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Piero Gleijeses' International History of the Cold War in Southern Africa, Omnibus E-Book by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Interpreting Our Heritage by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Voices of the Enslaved in Nineteenth-Century Cuba by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Porous Borders by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book On Freedom and the Will to Adorn by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book The Politics of Fashion in Eighteenth-Century America by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Love on the Rocks by William Merrill Decker
Cover of the book Roots of Secession by William Merrill Decker
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy