A Message from Bonnie Hurd Smith
June 5, 2008
Dear Friends, Fans, and Colleagues of Judith Sargent Murray (and Bonnie Hurd Smith),
Letter Book 3 of the Judith Sargent Murray Papers will be ready for printing in a couple of months. Meanwhile, in keeping with eighteenth-century tradition, I need to sell advance subscription copies to pay for the book's production as I did successfully with Letter Book 10.
The cost to subscribe is $39.95, plus $5.00 shipping. Massachusetts residents need to add $2.00 tax. Naturally, your name will be listed in the book, and you will have the eternal gratitude of Judith and me (!).
To subscribe, please make your check payable to Hurd Smith Communications, and send it to 15 Winter Street #2, Salem, MA 01970, USA.
Letter Book 3 includes letters from 1785-89. These are the years during whichJudith's first husband, John Stevens, lost his fortune and had to leave Gloucester for the West Indies where he died. These are also the years when John Murray and the Gloucester Universalists faced more legal battles, and John was forced to leave Gloucester for England—perhaps never to see Judith again! Before he sailed from Boston Harbor, he proposed, but would he ever return???
He did, and they were married in Salem, Mass., and this letter book contains letters about their marriage and honeymoon when they visited John and Abigail Adams in Braintree.
High drama, a poignant love story, 241 letters, extensive index, 492 pages, soft cover -- of course you want to subscribe! Or, buy it as a gift for the women's/early American/Universalist history enthusiast in your life.
Having said that, in many ways this is really a reference book. You could subscribe and then donate the book to your local public library, or to a college, university, or high school library. That would be terrific.
Here are the particulars:
Letters of Loss and Love: Judith Sargent Murray Papers, Letter
Book 3
Edited by Bonnie Hurd Smith
Soft cover; 492 pages; 8 pages of illustrations; indexed
ISBN #'s pending (it can't be "real" until they have a copy of the
book)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9791214-2-5
ISBN-10: 0-9791214-2-6
Friends, I appreciate your support.
It's important to make this primary source material available and weave Judith Sargent Murray back into our story. Yes, I have approached "real" publishers to take on this multiyear project. But I continue to run into the brick wall of "We've never heard of her," lose patience, and move on to self-publishing again -- but only with the help of supporters.
Please subscribe. I can't do it unless you do.
Thank you!
Bonnie Hurd Smith
P.S. Please forward this message to others who might be interested!