The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker

Fordham University

Northeastern University Press

Additional information at http://www.worldcat.org/title/diary-of-elizabeth-drinker/oclc/551462348. An abridged edition is also available at http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14686.html

The diary of Philadelphia Quaker Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker (1735-1807) is perhaps the single most significant personal record of eighteenth-century life in America from a woman's perspective. Drinker wrote in her diary nearly continuously between 1758 and 1807, from two years before her marriage to the night before her last illness. The extraordinary span and sustained quality of the journal make it a rewarding document for a multitude of historical purposes. One of the most prolific early American diarists—her journal runs to 36 manuscript volumes—Elizabeth Drinker saw English colonies evolve into the American nation while Drinker herself changed from a young unmarried woman into a wife, mother, and grandmother. Her journal entries touch on every contemporary subject political, personal, and familial.

Complete in three volumes.