Using unpublished manuscript writings, this book reinterprets material, social, literary, philosophical and religious contexts of women's letter-writing in the long 18th century. It shows how letter-writing functions as a form of literary manuscript exchange and argues for manuscript circulation as a method of engaging with the republic of letters.

Melanie Bigold's Women of Letters, Manuscript Circulation, and Print Afterlives in the Eighteenth Century offers us this clearer understanding, presenting the reader with three fine, well-chosen case studies to illustrate her various arguments. Women of Letters is valuable reading for those interested in the eighteenth century, women's writing, biography, Enlightenment, book history and print culture. The work is an excellent contribution to literary studies and offers us a clearer understanding of the female literary tradition . (Amy Prendergast, Romantic Textualities, romtext.org.uk, March, 2016)

In this revision of her thesis, Melanie Bigold provides a thoughtful study of the interplay of manuscript circulation and print culture over the course of the long eighteenth century. This book situates the careers of these increasingly appreciated authors within the social, literary, philosophical, and religious contexts of their time. The nuanced considerations of Bigold's work thus seem apt to inspire further study of the nexus of writing mediums, whose richness she has eloquently brought forth. (Ann-Marie Hansen, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, Vol. 53 (1), 2016)

'This gracefully written book is an original and thought-provoking contribution to our understanding of three of the most intelligent of the British Enlightenment women. Bigold's careful treatment of their writings, published and manuscript, and especially her deeply knowledgeable presentation of their engagement with the most important philosophical and literary debates of their times is a major contribution.' - Paula R. Backscheider, Philpott-Stevens Eminent Scholar, Auburn University, USA

Autorentext

MELANIE BIGOLD is a Lecturer at Cardiff University, UK. She has published work on eighteenth-century women writers, and transcribed and edited manuscripts for The Slave Trade Debate. She is currently working on a joint biography of George Ballard and Elizabeth Elstob, and leading a project on marginalia and provenance in the Cardiff Rare Books collection.

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Preface Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Note on transcription Introduction Letter-writing, Community, and Virtuous Exemplarity: Elizabeth Rowe's Theatre of Happiness A Saint Everlasting: Elizabeth Rowe and Biographical Exemplarity 'The new and untrodden path': Catharine Cockburn, Philosophy and the Republic of Letters '[H]ow Obscure her Lot': Catharine Cockburn's Double Afterlife Elizabeth Carter: 'a very extraordinary Phaenomenon in the Republick of Letters' Elizabeth Carter and the Theatrum Mundi Bibliography Notes Index