Elizabeth Stoddard (1823-1902) is most widely known today as the author of The Morgesons (1862), her first of three novels. Her two other novels are Two Men (1865) and Temple House (1867). Stoddard was also a prolific writer of short stories, children's tales, poems, essays, travel writing, and journalism pieces. Lawrence Buell is the Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University and the author of many books, including Emerson (2003) and The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination (2005), Sandra A. Zagarell is Donald R. Longman Professor of English at Oberlin College. Essays of hers have appeared widely in edited volumes and journals, and she is the senior editor of The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 4th edition.

"The Morgesons is a classic of premodern literature. Its rediscovery will change our preconceptions of women's literature in the nineteenth century."-Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University''A sly, subtle, shrewd observer of the ethos of her native New England village, Stoddard was a surprisingly 'modern' chronicler of the women of will and individuality seeking personal fulfillment against the crushing constraints of tradition. . . . She is well worth rescuing from oblivion and installing as a familiar presence in our literary culture."-Publishers Weekly

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsBiographical and Critical IntroductionA Guide to Writings by and About Elizabeth StoddardChronologyThe Morgesons-Introduction-Text-1901 PrefaceShort Fiction-Introduction-Lemorne versus Huell-Collected by a ValetudinarianEarly Journalism-Introduction-From "Our Lady Correspondent"'s Column, Daily Alta California-Manuscripts-Letters to Edmund Clarence Stedman-Letters to a Younger Literary Friend-Journal, 1866Emendations