Mercy Otis Warren / Jeffrey H. Richards.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Richards, Jeffrey H.

Series:

Twayne's United States authors series ; TUSAS 618.

Twayne's United States authors series ; TUSAS 618

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728-1814--Criticism and interpretation.

Warren, Mercy Otis.

Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728-1814.

Literature and history.

History.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Literature and the revolution.

United States.

Literature and history--United States--History--18th century.

Women and literature--United States--History--18th century.

Women and literature.

Physical Description:

xvii, 195 pages : portrait ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Twayne Publishers ; London : Prentice Hall International, [1995]

Summary:

Mercy Otis Warren was a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims, a witness to the American Revolution, a participant in the debates that gave shape to the new nation. She was a patriot and a passionate believer in democracy. She was the mother of five sons, an equal partner in a marriage of 54 years, a loyal and demanding friend. But given the perspective of time, writes Jeffrey Richards in this exhaustive study of her life and complete work, she was above all a writer, one of the most important of her generation. Both political activist and historian, Warren sought through her writing to influence the course of events in her own time and to record them for posterity. Among the first playwrights - and perhaps the first woman playwright - in America, Warren used her plays as a public forum for unabashed promotion of the Revolutionary cause. In such dramas as The Adulateur, The Defeat, and The Group, she skewered Loyalists to the British crown and elevated the self-sacrificing patriot. Not only in her essays and her formidable History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution but even in personal letters did Warren express herself as a historian. Her consistently serious and responsible tone suggests the image of Warren as "Republican Mother", caretaker of the new republic, writing not just to husband or friend or son but to future generations of Americans. Basing his analysis on extensive archival research, Richards corrects many errors of fact in previous Warren scholarship, particularly in her biography and in the attribution of several plays to her authorship. These new findings make this volume valuable to the experienced scholar, while the broad coverage of Warren'swork and the provision of literary and historical context make it accessible to students.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-185) and index.

ISBN:

0805740031

OCLC:

31867470