ABSTRACT

Mercy Otis Warren wrote hundreds of letters, leaving behind a rich trove of words and ideas from one of the new republic's first true intellectuals and one of its most politically committed women during her active adult life as a playwright, poet, political writer, essayist, and historian, as well as friend, sister, wife, and mother. For Warren, letters circulated in several such social networks, some of them overlapping: familial, political, and sororal connections dominate the surviving correspondence. The material issues surrounding Warren texts tie directly into those connected to authorship and craft. She wrote to write well as much as express political opinions or give advice; indeed, she could not have separated the rhetorical and artistic packaging from the commentary itself. Although sometimes she can be curt or abrupt, she much prefers a style that one might consider as oratorical. This style involves often long, complex sentences, with measured cadences, rising and falling phrases, and latinate diction.