The Writings of an English Sappho

In this weighty edition of Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russells works, based on extensive archival research, Patricia Phillippy brings together all known writings by her: letters, poems in English, Latin, and Greek, documents describing and planning christenings, weddings, and funerals, monumental inscriptions, entertainments, petitions, and Russells will. This ambitious and timely collection puts into practice recent critical arguments about the nature of womens writings and the importance of occasional verse, familial poetry, letters, and petitions as characteristically womens work. This collection also situates Russell, a woman, squarely and influentially in the humanist tradition, and explores her important place in English letters. This edition moves the field of early modern womens studies into new territory, with its treatment of monumental verse as an integral part of Russells oeuvre. Jane Donawerth Professor of English and affiliate faculty in womens studies University of Maryland