Memory's daughters : the material culture of remembrance in eighteenth-century America / Susan M. Stabile.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stabile, Susan M., 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--Intellectual life--18th century.

Women.

Women poets, American--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--Biography.

Women poets, American.

American poetry--Women authors--History and criticism.

American poetry.

American poetry--Women authors.

Memory--Social aspects--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--18th century.

Memory.

Material culture--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--18th century.

Material culture.

Architecture, Domestic--Social aspects--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--18th century.

Architecture, Domestic.

Commonplace books.

Souvenirs (Keepsakes)--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--18th century.

Souvenirs (Keepsakes).

History.

Architecture, Domestic--Social aspects.

Memory--Social aspects.

Intellectual life.

Philadelphia (Pa.)--Intellectual life--18th century.

Philadelphia (Pa.).

Philadelphia (Pa.)--Biography.

Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2004.

Summary:

A renowned literary coterie in eighteenth-century Philadelphia--Elizabeth Fergusson, Hannah Griffitts, Deborah Logan, Annis Stockton, and Susanna Wright--wrote and exchanged thousands of poems and maintained elaborate handwritten commonplace books of memorabilia. Through their creativity and celebrated hospitality, they initiated a salon culture in their great country houses in the Delaware Valley. In this stunningly original and heavily illustrated book, Susan M. Stabile shows that these female writers sought to memorialize their lives and aesthetic experience--a purpose that stands in marked contrast to the civic concerns of male authors in the republican era. Drawing equally on material culture and literary history, Stabile discusses how the group used their writings to explore and at times replicate the arrangement of their material possessions, including desks, writing paraphernalia, mirrors, miniatures, beds, and coffins. As she reconstructs the poetics of memory that informed the women's lives and structured their manuscripts, Stabile focuses on vernacular architecture, penmanship, souvenir collecting, and mourning.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-276) and index.

ISBN:

0801440319

OCLC:

53170321