Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott (review)

50Quaker History light of the power of God, "aggression is necessarily and inevitably dominant within human nature" [p. 252]. This is an important book for pacifist Friends today. Hugh BarbourArlington, MA SelectedLetters ofLucretia Coffin Mott. Edited by Beverly Wilson Palmer. Urbana and Chicago: University ofIllinois Press, 2002. liv+580 pp. Chronology , appendix, notes, biographical directory. $55. Beverly Wilson Palmer has provided enthusiasts of Lucretia Mott, Quaker scholars and students ofthe nineteenth century with an accessible, scholarly collection of approximately one fourth of Lucretia Mott' s existing correspondence. The letters in this volume run from her adulthood in 1813 to nearly the end of her life in 1879. Palmer has selected letters covering all aspects of Mott's life as a mother, daughter, wife, friend, sister, activist, and public Friend. Along with the letters Palmer includes a well documented chronology ofMott's entire life. The biographical directory provides a documented chronology to those individuals who figure prominently in the correspondence. Scholars wanting to pursue their own research will find the guide to Lucretia Mott's correspondence in the appendix to be particularly valuable. This guide provides information on the current location ofall ofMott's surviving correspondence. Each listing provides the name of the recipient or sender, the date of the letter, the location from which it was sent, its format and its length. The editorial notes following each letter are one of the many strengths of this book. These notes clarify Mott's relationship with each individual mentioned in the letter. Palmer wisely does not assume that once a person is mentioned the reader will remember them the next time they are mentioned several letters later. Hence in the index, she has chosen to bold the page number where that relationship with Mott is discussed. Readers can quickly reference the note where a person is first introduced. Along with keeping track ofthe folks in the correspondence, the notes provide important context for all of the topics covered in letters. For instance, when Lucretia writes to Nathaniel and Elisa Barney in 1839 and mentions the furor caused over her attendance at aNon-Resistance Meeting, the notes in the letter help the reader to understand the many personalities and issues surrounding this outcry against Mott and her response to it. With the index, interested readers can pursue a specific topic in Mott's life, such as her interest in the Non-Resistance movement or her work in temperance. Not as well known as a temperance advocate, the index Book Reviews51 includes 10 separate references to this topic alone. Often the notes suggest their own line of research as in the case of Mott's discussion of Lincoln's First Inaugural Address. Here the note concerning Mott's discussion ofthe speech (Lucretia Mott to Martha Coffin Wright and Eliza Wright Osborne 3/19/61) restates Lincoln's remarks with which Mott took most offense and mentions other criticisms leveled against it in the Liberator, the AntiSlavery Bugle and the NASS. Returning to the index one can find additional references to Lincoln and each of the publications mentioned. In this manner a reader or researcher can gain valuable information about any ofthe many topics covered in this book. Further, the index provides a short hand means of mining this volume for all instances of a topic or related subtopic. In her introduction Palmer provides a well-balanced introduction to Mott and her life. This understanding of Mott guides Palmer in the editorial choices she makes concerning which letters to include and which to leave out. Palmer sees Mott as a person deeply committed to each of the many causes she involved herself in. Hence Palmer includes letters covering the breadth of this work. She also considers Mott a deeply spiritual woman, though one who translated her faith into action rather than mysticism . The correspondence includes much of Mott's thoughts both casual and more formal on her religious beliefs and struggles. She struggled mightily throughout the Hicksite schism and then later as an activist member of an increasingly quietisi sect. Wisely, Palmer chose to include the private aspects ofMott's life in her correspondence as well. "Indeed, it would be impossible to separate the personal...