Jennifer M. Nader – författare

These 250 transcribed and annotated letters reveal the personal and literary life of one of the most highly regarded African American writers and intellectuals  Paul Laurence Dunbar (1873–1906) was arguably the most famous African American poet, novelist, and dramatist at the turn of the twentieth century and one of the earliest African American writers to receive national recognition and appreciation. Scholars have taken a renewed interest in Dunbar but much is still unknown about this once-famous African American author’s life and literary efforts. Dunbar’s letters to various editors, friends, benefactors, scholars, and family members are crucial to any critical or theoretical understanding of his journey as a writer. His literary correspondence, in particular, records the development of an extraordinary figure whose work reached a broad readership in his lifetime, but not without considerable cost.  The Selected Literary Letters of Paul Laurence Dunbar is a collection of 250 letters, transcribed and annotated, that reveal the personal and literary life of one of the most highly regarded African American writers and intellectuals. Editors Cynthia C. Murillo and Jennifer M. Nader highlight Dunbar not just as a determined author and master of rhetoric, but also as a young, sensitive, thoughtful, keenly intelligent, and talented writer who battled depression, alcoholism, and tuberculosis as well as rejection and racism. Despite Dunbar’s personal struggles, his literary letters disclose that he was full of hopes and dreams coupled with the resolve to flourish as a writer—at almost any cost, even when it caused controversy.  Taken together, Dunbar’s letters depict his concerted effort to succeed as an author within an overtly racist literary culture, among sharp divides within the African American intellectual community, and in opposition to the demands of popular public tastes—often dictated by the demands of publishers. This wide-ranging selection of Dunbar’s most relevant literary letters will serve to correct many matters of conjecture about Dunbar’s life, writing, and choices by supplying factual evidence to counter speculation, assumption, and incomplete information.

These 250 transcribed and annotated letters reveal the personal and literary life of one of the most highly regarded African American writers and intellectuals   Paul Laurence Dunbar (1873–1906) was arguably the most famous African American poet, novelist, and dramatist at the turn of the twentieth century and one of the earliest African American writers to receive national recognition and appreciation. Scholars have taken a renewed interest in Dunbar but much is still unknown about this once-famous African American author’s life and literary efforts. Dunbar’s letters to various editors, friends, benefactors, scholars, and family members are crucial to any critical or theoretical understanding of his journey as a writer. His literary correspondence, in particular, records the development of an extraordinary figure whose work reached a broad readership in his lifetime, but not without considerable cost.   The Selected Literary Letters of Paul Laurence Dunbar is a collection of 250 letters, transcribed and annotated, that reveal the personal and literary life of one of the most highly regarded African American writers and intellectuals. Editors Cynthia C. Murillo and Jennifer M. Nader highlight Dunbar not just as a determined author and master of rhetoric, but also as a young, sensitive, thoughtful, keenly intelligent, and talented writer who battled depression, alcoholism, and tuberculosis as well as rejection and racism. Despite Dunbar’s personal struggles, his literary letters disclose that he was full of hopes and dreams coupled with the resolve to flourish as a writer—at almost any cost, even when it caused controversy.   Taken together, Dunbar’s letters depict his concerted effort to succeed as an author within an overtly racist literary culture, among sharp divides within the African American intellectual community, and in opposition to the demands of popular public tastes—often dictated by the demands of publishers. This wide-ranging selection of Dunbar’s most relevant literary letters will serve to correct many matters of conjecture about Dunbar’s life, writing, and choices by supplying factual evidence to counter speculation, assumption, and incomplete information.

Bodily Autonomy in 19th Century American Women's Writing: A Cornucopia of Pharmacopoeia investigates literary and autobiographical texts by nineteenth century American women, examining how women used herbal remedies to maintain bodily autonomy and how that autonomy was progressively eroded with the rise of plant-based tropane solanaceae alkaloids, and later, synthetic and anaesthetic drugs.Once chemists distilled alkaloids from plants, women's bodily autonomy became increasingly threatened and regulated by patriarchal ideologies at familial, state, and federal levels-threats compounded by the rise of pharmaceuticals, the medical profession, and asylums. In asylum settings especially, these forces converged to strip women of bodily autonomy entirely, a loss further intensified by the introduction of anaesthetics. Few studies engage directly with nineteenth-century American literature and autobiography as critical sources for understanding these dynamics. This book addresses that gap by examining how literary and autobiographical texts from the period depict women's efforts to secure bodily autonomy in the face of restrictive legal, medical, and social systems.This volume is written for a broad audience: students, teacher-scholars, and researchers interested in nineteenth-century American women's bodily autonomy. It is suitable for medical humanities courses, classes examining historical practices in law, medicine, psychiatry, ethics, chemistry, botany, as well as courses on American cultural practices such as American Studies.

Bodily Autonomy in 19th Century American Women's Writing: A Cornucopia of Pharmacopoeia investigates literary and autobiographical texts by nineteenth century American women, examining how women used herbal remedies to maintain bodily autonomy and how that autonomy was progressively eroded with the rise of plant-based tropane solanaceae alkaloids, and later, synthetic and anaesthetic drugs.Once chemists distilled alkaloids from plants, women's bodily autonomy became increasingly threatened and regulated by patriarchal ideologies at familial, state, and federal levels-threats compounded by the rise of pharmaceuticals, the medical profession, and asylums. In asylum settings especially, these forces converged to strip women of bodily autonomy entirely, a loss further intensified by the introduction of anaesthetics. Few studies engage directly with nineteenth-century American literature and autobiography as critical sources for understanding these dynamics. This book addresses that gap by examining how literary and autobiographical texts from the period depict women's efforts to secure bodily autonomy in the face of restrictive legal, medical, and social systems.This volume is written for a broad audience: students, teacher-scholars, and researchers interested in nineteenth-century American women's bodily autonomy. It is suitable for medical humanities courses, classes examining historical practices in law, medicine, psychiatry, ethics, chemistry, botany, as well as courses on American cultural practices such as American Studies.