The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker: The Life Cycle of an Eighteenth-Century Woman - Paperback

by Elaine Forman Crane (Editor)

The journal of Philadelphia Quaker Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker (1735-1807) is perhaps the single most significant personal record of eighteenth-century life in America from a woman's perspective. Drinker wrote in her diary nearly continuously between 1758 and 1807, from two years before her marriage to the night before her last illness. The extraordinary span and sustained quality of the journal make it a rewarding document for a multitude of historical purposes. One of the most prolific early American diarists--her journal runs to thirty-six manuscript volumes--Elizabeth Drinker saw English colonies evolve into the American nation while Drinker herself changed from a young unmarried woman into a wife, mother, and grandmother. Her journal entries touch on every contemporary subject political, personal, and familial.

Author Biography

Elaine Forman Crane is Professor of History at Fordham University. She is the author of Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell and editor of the journal Early American Studies, the latter also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.