The first history of America's major literary form offers new views of our literary history and a sophisticated examination of areas of fiction that have only recently begun to receive attention.

The Early American Women Writers series offers rare works of fiction by eighteeth- and nineteenth-century women, each reprinted it its entirety, each with a foreword by General Editor Cathy N. Davidson, who places the novel in a historical and literary perspective. Ranging from serious cautionary tales about moral corruption to amusing and trenchant social satire, these books provide today's reader with a unique window into the earliest American popular fiction and way of life.

Written in 1822, A New-England Tale is the first of Catherine Sedgwick's twenty novels in addition to the one hundred short magazine pieces she published in her lifetime. The story of an orphan girl in rural New England and the moral and religious trials she faces as she grows up, this intriguing portrait provides a unique look at the religious and political climate of this crucial period in America's development as a country. Addressing many of the complex religious, political, and philosophical issues of the time, as well as theoretical issues of the woman writer, A New-England Tale is a classic nineteenth-century story of a young woman's moral and material triumphs.

This extensive chronology of US women's writing and social history catalogues authors of fiction and nonfiction across a wide range of genres - novels, poetry, cookbooks, songs - and describes the events from world-transforming to everyday occurences when these works were produced. This invaluable resource is a celebration of the many forms of works - written and social, tangible and intangible - produced by American women.