About the Letters
Catharine Maria Sedgwick Quotes
“If there is anything that pervades my whole character, it is a love of freedom.”
CMS to Susan Higginson Channing, June 4, 1821
“I feel the scribbling fever throbbing at my finger’s ends at this moment, and a fit of this kind you know does not leave me suddenly.”
CMS to Frances Sedgwick Watson, May 31, 1812
To encourage and support the integrity of future scholarship, the CMS Online Letters (CMSOL) project will make available all letters written by Sedgwick during her nearly seven decades as an active correspondent, with authoritative transcriptions and selected holographs. Approximately two-thirds of Sedgwick’s letters reside at MHS and are available on microfilm; additional letters are held in other MHS collections, but many letters are scattered in archives across the nation and abroad. Our initial web publication was devoted to Sedgwick’s early years, beginning with her childhood letters of the 1790s and extending to 1826, shortly after her second novel, Redwood, had brought her national and international fame. In our second phase, we will publish Sedgwick’s letters through 1835.
About Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867) is the most significant, experimental, influential, and highly regarded woman writer of the Early National Period of American Literature. Read more about Sedgwick’s reputation and the scope of her letters here.
Contributors
Editor and Project Director: Deborah Gussman, Stockton University
Editor: Lucinda Damon-Bach, Salem State University
Editor: Patricia Kalayjian, California State University, Dominguez Hills (Project Director, 2020-2025)
Contributing Editor: Jill Kirsten Anderson, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Contributing Editor: Jordan L. Von Cannon, Florida Gulf Coast University
Special thanks to the following graduate assistants, and graduate and undergraduate interns:
- Cynthia Anstey, Stockton University
- Alyssa Carrizales, Salem State University
- Sarah Cirillio, Stockton University
- Michelle Contarino, Stockton University
- Gianna D’Andrea, Stockton University
- Mary DeRose, Stockton University
- Isabella Elg, Florida Gulf Coast University
- Eryn Genova, Stockton University
- Faye Hoey, Florida Gulf Coast University
- Chantelle Leswell, Salem State University
- Olivia Macanka, Stockton University
- Sarah Martell, Salem State University
- Mickey C. McGrath, Salem State University
- Shaun Steup, Stockton University
- Catherine A. Tunney, Salem State University
- Oscar Turcott, Salem State University
Project efforts have also been advanced by the valuable contributions of faculty and student transcribers, including members of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Society, and participants in CMSOL workshops. Click here for a list of additional contributors.
Acknowledgments
The CMSOL editorial team would like to thank the following institutions for their generous support of this project:
- The National Endowment for the Humanities
- California State University, Dominguez Hills
- Salem State University
- Stockton University