Women's letters

Hailed as a "definitive portrait of America's past 99 years" by Time Magazine, Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler's landmark collection, Letters of the Century, opened a fascinating window on our nation's history. Now the editors of Letters of the Century continue their epistolary chronicles in a book that captures the female perspective on the events that shaped America. As Grunwald and Adler write in their introduction: "Women's letters talk -- they tell stories, they tell secrets, they console and advise, gossip and argue, compare and compete. And along the way, they -- usually without meaning to -- write history." Historical events of the last three centuries come live through these women's singular correspondences -- often their only form of public expression. - Jacket flap.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.