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American Literature 75.3 (2003) 675-689



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Editions

Susan Fenimore Cooper: Essays on Nature and Landscape. Ed. Rochelle Johnson and Daniel Patterson. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press. 2002. xxxiv, 131 pp. Cloth, $45.00; paper, $19.95.

These ten pieces, nine of which are reprinted for the first time since Cooper's death, complement the famous Rural Hours (1850) by providing a record of the development of Cooper's ideas on nature and nature writing. This volume includes the preface and appendix to the second edition of Rural Hours; the preface to Cooper's volume of nature poetry, which chronicles the role of nature in writing throughout history; and the series of essays, "Otsego Leaves," which represents her mature vision.

A Southern Woman of Letters: The Correspondence of Augusta Jane Evans Wilson . Ed. Rebecca Grant Sexton. Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press. 2002. xxxv, 205 pp. $29.95.

Although Wilson's work is seldom anthologized, her fourth novel, St. Elmo, outsold all nineteenth-century novels except Uncle Tom's Cabin. In addition to nine novels, Wilson wrote numerous letters, some offering advice to leaders of the Confederacy, which she ardently supported. Wilson wavered between expressing her opinions capably and displaying the feminine deference she apparently considered appropriate. These 112 letters to leaders, fans, friends, and family offer a window into the life and times of a complicated woman.

Martin R. Delany: A Documentary Reader . Ed. Robert S. Levine. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press. 2003. x, 507 pp. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $24.95.

Delany's radical politics may be the reason he is less famous than Frederick Douglass, with whom he worked on the North Star for eighteen months, but Delany did much more than author the serial novel Blake. This volume contains almost one hundred documents by and about Delany, most out of print [End Page 675] for over a century, which treat Delany's work on the North Star, as well as his own newspaper, Mystery, and on the project of black emigration; his travels in the United States and Africa; and his role in the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 6: 1874–1875 . CSE Approved. Ed. Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. 2002. xxxix, 926 pp. $85.00.

The two years covered by the letters in this volume were mostly joyful and prosperous for Samuel Clemens. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and articles for the Atlantic Monthly, published a book of sketches, and enjoyed the tremendous success of his stage version of The Gilded Age. He also welcomed a new daughter into the world and moved with his family to a new home, where he spent much of his time, having concluded an extended period of travel. This volume contains 348 letters, approximately half of which have never before been published.

The New Woman of Color: The Collected Writings of Fannie Barrier Williams, 1893–1918 . Ed. Mary Jo Deegan. DeKalb: Northern Illinois Univ. Press. 2002. lx, 162 pp. $38.00.

Fannie Barrier Williams was a well-educated black woman of the middle class who, despite her relative privilege, was an enthusiastic advocate for the rights of African Americans, especially women. Williams was actively involved in the African American club movement, but her acceptance as the first African American member of the Chicago Women's Club reflected her belief in the social parity of blacks and whites. This volume contains her brief autobiography and her writings about education, employment, travel, art, and social settlements.

Analyzing Freud: Letters of H.D., Bryher, and Their Circle. Ed. Susan Stanford Friedman. New York: New Directions. 2002. lii, 615 pp. $37.95.

When H.D. came to Freud in the spring of 1933, her writing had stalled, but by the end of their second series of sessions in the fall of 1934, she had regained her creative focus. The vast majority of the 307 letters included here are from H.D. to her companion Bryher. They chronicle her psychoanalysis, revealing a Freud far less authoritarian than his writings would suggest. Letters written by...

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