First Lady of Letters
Judith Sargent Murray and the Struggle for Female Independence
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Pennsylvania Press
Published:22nd Mar '13
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Hardback£34.00(9780812241402)
Sheila L. Skemp's First Lady of Letters explores Judith Sargent Murray's life, highlighting her role as a pioneering advocate for women's rights in early America.
The recent discovery of Judith Sargent Murray's papers, which include approximately 2,500 personal letters, has allowed historian Sheila L. Skemp to shed light on the remarkable life of an extraordinary woman from the eighteenth century. Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) was not only a poet, essayist, and playwright but also a pioneering advocate for women's rights in early America. During her lifetime, she was as well-known as notable figures like Abigail Adams and Martha Washington. Despite her significant contributions, her name has largely faded from public memory.
Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Judith moved to Boston in 1793 with her second husband, John Murray, a Universalist minister. In Boston, she became an integral part of the literary community, with two of her plays performed at the Federal Street Theater, making her the first American woman to have a play produced in the city. Her magnum opus, The Gleaner, a three-volume collection of poems, essays, and a novel-like story titled Margaretta, was also published during this time. However, as the years passed, her literary output dwindled due to societal backlash against women's rights, economic struggles, and her dedication to her daughter's education.
Despite these challenges, Judith Sargent Murray remained committed to advocating for women's rights and the pursuit of happiness as outlined in the Declaration of Independence. She challenged the conventions of her time by questioning gender roles and emphasizing the shared human qualities of men and women, arguing that differences were shaped by upbringing rather than biology. Although she faced disappointment in her lifetime, the intellectual and literary legacy left by Murray continues to inspire and provoke thought about equality and women's rights in America, making First Lady of Letters a significant contribution to women's history.
"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 *
"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 *
"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 *
"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 *
"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 *
"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 *
ISBN: 9780812222487
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
512 pages