Women of letters : gender, writing and the life of the mind in early modern England / Leonie Hannan.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 188-200) and index.

Print version record.

Cover; Half-title; Series information; Title page; Copyright information; Table of contents; List of figures; List of figures; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Literacy, education and the life of the mind; Women's intellectual lives in an era of Enlightenment; Letters and letter-writing; Sites and communities; Sources; Material, spatial and textual: approaches to studying letters; The material; The spatial; The textual; Notes; Part I Women and learning; 1 Getting started; Literacy and self-education; Expectations of intellectual life; Access to information; Notes.

2 Becoming an 'intellectual'Intellectual identities; The 'learned lady' and the amateur intellectual; Lifecycle and the intellectual biography; Female intellect, originality and the public domain; Notes; Part II Putting pen to paper; 3 Writing and thinking; The epistolary academy; Address and formality; Writing and thinking: the importance of correspondence; The content of letters; Networks and contacts; Conclusion; Notes; 4 Spaces for writing; The home as a site of learning; Spaces for reading and writing; Time and the domestic space; Privacy and the psychology of space; Imagined spaces.

NotesPart III Hearts and minds; 5 Connecting reason and emotion; Mind and body; Epistolary relationships; Letters and perfect friendship; Letter-writing as self-help; Conclusion; Notes; 6 A seedbed for change; Letters; Gender; Space; The next generation; Notes; Appendix; Bibliography; Primary sources; Manuscript; Bedfordshire and Luton Archive Service; Bodleian Library; British Library; Derbyshire Record Office; East Sussex Record Office, The Keep Archives; Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies; Library of the Society of Friends; Print; Secondary sources; Unpublished; Index.

Women of letters writes a new history of English women's intellectual worlds using their private letters as evidence of hidden networks of creative exchange.

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