The Pen and the People English Letter Writers, 1660-1800

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,ThePen and the Peoplewill be enjoyed by everyone interested in history, literature, and the intimate experiences of ordinary people. Based on over sixty previously unknown collections of family papers, 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, Susan 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 was eighteenth-century society and culture slowly and subtly transformed.

Susan E. Whyman returned to the academic world after a career that encompassed the publishing, editing, and library professions. Her academic degrees include a BA in History from Mt. Holyoke College, magna cum laude and a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from Rutgers, the State University. She received both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in British History from Princeton University. At Princeton, she taught and did her graduate work with Professor Lawrence Stone. She has been a visiting scholar at Wadham College, Oxford and received a Huntington Library fellowship in San Marino, California. Whyman has been an annual visitor to England since the early 1970s. Presently, she spends time in Princeton and Oxford, England as an independent historian.

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