To read my heart
Subtitle: the journal of Rachel Van Dyke, 1810-1811
By: edited by Lucia McMahon and Deborah Schriver.
Contributors: McMahon, Lucia.; Schriver, Deborah.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 429
Subjects: Van Dyke, Rachel, b. 1793 -- Diaries; Young women -- New Jersey -- New Brunswick -- Diaries; Young women -- New Jersey -- New Brunswick -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; New Brunswick (N.J.) -- Biography; New Brunswick (N.J.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; New Brunswick (N.J.) -- Intellectual life -- 19th century
Genres: Diaries.; Biography.
Description: "To Read My Heart: The Journal of Rachel Van Dyke, 1810-1811, a primary document previously unpublished, offers insights into the life and mind of a seventeen-year-old young woman, while providing a window into the cultural and social landscape of the early national period. Rachel was a thoughtful, intelligent observer, and her journal is an important account of upper- and middle-class life in the growing city of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Her entries reveal her remarkably considered views on social customs, marriage, gender roles, friendship, and religion.".

"The journal is dominated by two interrelated themes: Rachel's desire to broaden her knowledge and her friendship with her teacher, Ebenezer Grosvenor. Since Ebenezer was both her teacher and her romantic interest, it is impossible to distinguish between the themes of education and romance that dominate her writings. On several occasions, Rachel and Ebenezer exchanged their private journals with each other.

During these exchanges, Ebenezer added comments in the margins of Rachel's journal, producing areas of written "conversation" between them." "To Read My Heart will be of interest to students of American history, women's studies, and nineteenth-century literature."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [409]-418) and index.