I just spent several hours in the UT Arlington archive reading ORIGINAL love letters from Sam Houston to Anna Raquet. Uh, he was married, btw, but filing for divorce. So, why was I there? Well, I'm taking this American Literature class that focuses on epistolary discourse. Our professor just published a book, To Marry an Indian, consisting of letters to and from Harriett Gold (a white woman), her American Indian husband Elias Boudinot, and her family--those who approved and disapproved of her marrying an Indian. Well, the book consists of an introduction and letters. And she would like for us to experience the same type of primary research. So, to this end, I will be transcribing 150 year old letters, annotating them, and composing a 10 page introduction. All told, in the end, the project should be more than the 40 req'd pages. I'm actually excited now that I have a good subject. I had intended to do the Hamilton/Burr duel, but it has already been done and was done well. I saw no sense to redoing it for busy work. The Houston letters have been done as well, but the editorial process the editor used was not up to scholarly standards, and there is must room for improvement.
In my Victorian Literature class, I will be analyzing the Victorian fairy tales of Anne Thackeray Ritchie through a feminists lens. (cough) I guess I should mention that I know absolutely NOTHING about feminism!!! So any books or sources that you think might help me, I'd loved to hear about it. I talked to a professor today and she recommended some books. I requested an inter-library loan for a book she published in America in 1868, but there are only 3 libraries nation wide, so I probably will not be getting that loan, at least I'm not pinning my hopes on it. Well, this is a summary of two of the projects I'm working on currently. I am very excited about them and hope I can pull them off with quality. LD
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What a nifty blog!! Are you writing this month?? Doing the little contest?? It's a cool deal, really...
I love the blog (nice set-up; awesome name and mantra --- oh so Lynda-esque!). Not to mention --- I love having a different genre for our too rare "conversations."
I'm glad you settled on the Sam Houston Letters. It sounds totally fascinating and so much more up your proverbial alley! You are so flourishing at TCU; we are all so proud of you! Of course, though it might have been a surprise to YOU, we all KNEW you would do it. Keep blogging it out here; I swear it helps. At least I'm relatively sure that it has been partially responsible for keeping me mentally intact (or mostly intact) these last months.
"Hi. My name is Donna. I'm not just the President and owner of blogging-r-us -- I'm a customer too!"
Bravo to you for jumping into this addictive little world (and, I like the company!).
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