Everyday ideas

"Everyday Ideas: Socioliterary Experience among Antebellum New Englanders takes a look at the use of literature in everyday life in one of history's most literate societies - the home ground of the American Renaissance. Using information pulled from four thousand manuscript letters and diaries, Everyday Ideas provides a comprehensive picture of how the social and literary dimensions of human existence related in antebellum New England." "An important aid in understanding historical readers and social authorship practices, Everyday Ideas is a unique resource on New England and provides a framework for understanding the profound role of ideas in the everyday world of the antebellum period."--BOOK JACKET.