Legacy

In recent years, scholars such as Catherine La Courreye Blecki, Sandra Gustafson, Sharon M. Harris, Carla Mulford, David S. Shields, and Karin Wulf have noted that studies of the eighteenth century have largely ignored the importance of manuscript production and thus advanced a rather skewed picture of culture—especially literate culture—in early America. While it was once accepted that the popularity or cultural significance of particular writers should be judged solely on the basis of the publication history of their works, this literary-historical truism has been called into question. This change in attitude has, in turn, led to an increased interest in the lives and literary productions of eighteenth-century women like Judith Sargent Murray and Annis Stockton, whose writings were dispersed widely among family and friends and, in some instances, made available for publication. Evidence suggests that for women of the elite class, manuscript circulation was a key component of identity formation, and many of these women were well known for their writings, regardless of whether those writings ever appeared in print.

Anne Ousterhout's The Most Learned Woman in America: A Life of Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson contributes to this growing body of evidence, indicating that manuscript culture flourished among elite women during the eighteenth century and provided them with an outlet for literary, cultural, and personal expression. Ousterhout not only provides insight into the life of an influential and previously understudied Philadelphian, but also sheds new light on literary production, Revolutionary-era politics, and the various roles played by elite women in eighteenth-century America.

Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson was born into a wealthy Philadelphia family that included prominent physicians and political figures. Her acquaintances included Benjamin Franklin and his son William (to whom she was informally engaged), Benjamin Rush, Annis Stockton, and the Penn family. Fergusson was widely read and well versed in both classical and popular literature. A prolific writer herself, she composed numerous journals, travelogues, commonplace books, and works of poetry, the manuscript circulation of which helped to cement her reputation as a learned and talented woman. During the 1770 s, she hosted literary salons at Graeme Park, her family estate, which provided a venue for sharing literary productions. Like her writings, the literary and cultural exchanges in her home further demonstrate Fergusson's centrality to the manuscript culture of eighteenth-century Philadelphia.

However, while Fergusson's education prepared her to host literary functions, it did not [End Page 70] prepare her to manage an estate or negotiate the personal and political problems that would plague her later years. Her marriage to Henry Fergusson, eleven years her junior, was fraught with difficulty, particularly because he remained loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War. Faced with the prospect of losing her own and her family's assets, Fergusson experienced first-hand the difficulties faced by women under the system of coverture and was forced to rely heavily on friends for guidance and assistance. Her obsession with clearing her own reputation and ferreting out her husband's indiscretions would eventually strain many of her personal relationships. Thus, the last fifteen years of her life were spent in relative isolation, far from the literary limelight she had once enjoyed.

Ousterhout's biography provides a sweeping survey of Fergusson's life, from what Fergusson deemed the "sweet period of vernal innocence and youth" through her marriage and the increased economic, political, and personal hardships that she faced later in life (48). To reconstruct Fergusson's life, Ousterhout draws heavily on primary source materials such as letters, commonplace books, journals, and local political and historical records. She makes the most of what is, in reality, a rather limited number of texts by one of early America's most productive writers. Early in the biography, Ousterhout notes that most of Fergusson's written materials do not survive because her acquaintances complied with her request to burn her papers. In order to overcome this gap in...