Letters from Erastus
Subtitle: field notes on grace
By: Anne D. Emerson
Publisher: Levellers Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Amherst, Massachusetts
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9781937146702
Subjects: Correspondence; Family; Presbyterian Church; Clergy; Fathers and daughters; Records and correspondence; Families; Massachusetts Historical Society
Other titles: Field notes on grace
Description: Letters from Erastus : field notes on grace is woven around twenty-two letters written by Hopkins to his daughters in the 1850s and '60s in Northampton, Massachusetts. Hopkins was a founder of the Free Soil Party in Massachusetts and its most eloquent advocate. A stirring orator, he was an effective legislator for Western Massachusetts on Beacon Hill. He was a Presbyterian minister in a sea of Congregationalists, founding president of the Connecticut River Railroad and an active agent of the Underground Railroad. The letters reveal an unexpected sensitivity and attempt to provide firm but gentle guidance to a family coping with years of domestic tragedy. Buried for one-hundred-fifty years in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the letters become a bridge to Linc, a schizophrenic cousin in prison, and a guide for the author's understanding of her own life story and old New England family. While this is a book full of engaging history, it is also a contemporary story, about a family of artists, the interplay of generations and values, and the ways we search for and find meaning as we move through the chapters of life.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.