The letters of Mrs. Gaskell,
by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Category: Literary Collections

Elizabeth Gaskell, whose perceptive letters became part of the narrative of PBS's CIVIL WAR series, witnessed a number of crucial events and trends that shaped 19th-century America. These collected letters, addressed to over a hundred correspondents (some renowned), are an invaluable account of both the cataclysmic and the mundane, written with delicacy and verve.