More than an accomplishment: Advice on letter writing for nineteenth-century American women

Huntington Library Quarterly

Volumn 66, Issue 3-4, 2003, Pages 411-422

  Mahoney, Deirdre M ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 63149096268     PISSN: 00187895     EISSN: 1544399X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (38)

1. Anne Ruggles Gere's study "Kitchen Tables and Rented Rooms: The Extracurriculum of Composition," which focused on the role of composition instruction and discourse communities outside formal education in America, is an exception (College Composition and Communication 45 [1994]: 75-92). She adopts "extracurriculum" (p. 79), a term still widely used, from the work of Frederick Rudolph
2. See also Gere, Intimate Practices: Literacy and Cultural Work in U.S. Women's Clubs, 1880-1920 (Urbana, 111., 1997); and Dana Elder's essay in this volume
3. John Todd, The Daughter at School (Northampton, Mass., 1854), 132
4. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Learning How to Behave: A Historical Study of American Etiquette Books (New York, 1968), 18
5. Mary Reed Bobbitt, A Bibliography of Etiquette Books Published in America before 1900 (New York, 1947). Many of the books listed were originally published in Britain, however, some as early as the seventeenth century
6. Jane E. Rose ("Conduct Books for Women, 1830-1860: A Rationale for Women's Conduct and Domestic Role in America," in Catherine Hobbs, ed., Nineteenth-Century Women Learn to Write [Charlottesville, Va., 1995])
7. John F. Kasson, Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America (New York, 1990), 34. 36-37
8. Mary Elizabeth Sherwood, Manners and Social Usages (1897; New York, 1975), 6, 159, 130
9. Todd, Daughter at School, 130
10. Godey's Lady's Book changed its name numerous times during its tenure. It was originally called The Lady's Book, and other titles included Monthly Magazine of Belles-Lettres and the Arts and Ladies'American Magazine; the last title was Godey's Magazine
11. See Allison Bulsterbaum, "Godey's Lady's Book," in Edward Chielens, ed., American Literary Magazines: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (New York, 1986)
12. The magazine is now generally referred to as Godey's Lady's Book. For the quotation, see "The Escrutoire," The Lady's Book (March 1831): 121
13. Richard Wells, Manners, Culture, and Dress of the Best American Society (Springfield, Mass., 1894), 171
14. Eliza Leslie, Miss Leslies Behavior Book: A Guide and Manual for Ladies (1856; New York, 1972), 152
15. Sherwood, Manners and Social Usages, 162
16. The Complete Letter Writer: A Comprehensive and Practical Guide and Assistant to Letter Writing (Chicago, 1884)
17. See History of the United States Post Office (Washington, D.C., 1993)
18. and Carl H. Scheele, Neither Snow, Nor Rain.. . : The Story of the United States Mails (Washington, D.C., 1970), 32
19. See Wayne E. Fuller, The American Mail: Enlarger of the Common Life (Chicago, 1972), 67, 71
20. Eliza Farrar, The Young Lady's Friend (1836; New York, 1974), 281
21. Thomas E. Hill, Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms: Guide to Correct Writing (Chicago, 1889), 77
22. Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Letters (Halifax, 1842), 501-2. See Dana Elders essay in this volume
23. Complete Letter Writer, 26
24. The Letter Writer's Own Book, or, the Art of Polite Correspondence (Philadelphia, 1850), xiv
25. Sarah Hale, Manners; or Happy Homes and Good Society All the Year Round (Boston, 1868), 140
26. Leslie, Guide and Manual for Ladies, 166
27. Wells, Manners, Culture, and Dress, 184
28. Emily Thornwell, The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility (New York, 1858), 157
29. Hill, Manual of Social and Business Forms, 78
30. Hale, Happy Homes and Good Society, 137
31. William A. Alcott, Gift Book for Young Ladies; or Familiar Letters on Their Acquaintances, Male and Female, Employments, Friendships (Buffalo, 1852), 131
32. Farrar, Young Lady's Friend (1836; New York, 1974), 280-81
33. Thornwell, Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility, 162
34. Florence Howe Hall, Social Customs (Boston, 1887), 241
35. "Be Careful What You Write," Godey's Lady's Book (December 1859): 557
36. Hall, Social Customs, 240
37. Thomas P. Miller, The Formation of College English: Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the British Cultural Provinces (Pittsburgh, 1997), 48
38. "Writing Letters," Godey's Lady's Magazine (April 1871), 484