Description
Book SynopsisRetrieved from 7 libraries, this corpus of letters was preserved by the Manning family, chiefly for their value as records of Nathaniel's life and work. This book tells of Elizabeth's early life; the trauma caused for sister and brother by the death of their father and the tensions experienced when they moved in with their mother's family.
Trade ReviewThe portrait of Elizabeth that emerges is an unusual picture of a single and independent (sometimes irreverent) middle-class woman whose interests revolve around literature and politics. Her everyday reporting of uneventful incidents is just as enlightening as her commentary on the Civil War or political unrest in Germany. In fact, she seems to invigorate the mundane or quotidian with the same spirit and tone that Hawthorne used to combine the unusual and the commonplace. - Monika Elbert, author of Separate Spheres No More: Gender Convergence in American Literature, 1830-1930
