Letters

Over the period 1500–1700 the letter was the most pervasive genre of women’s writing, and the one for which there is the most archival evidence. This quotidian and practical mode of writing enabled women to conduct conversations otherwise restricted by time, place and family or social standing. Women wrote letters to communicate with familiars, negotiate business, exert influence, participate in learned conversations, express religious views, and maintain membership in communities. Extant letter collections demonstrate that early modern women exercised considerable ingenuity and wit in manipulating the standard conventions of letter writing to their own ends.