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This volume gathers nearly half of some 300 letters written by Mary Telfair of Savannah to her best friend, Mary Few of New York. Telfair was born in 1790 to a wealthy, prominent, slaveholding Savannah family. Few, born in 1790 into equally affluent circumstances, moved with her family from Savannah to New York in 1799. Self-exiled because of their strong antislavery views, the Fews never returned to Georgia, yet they remained close to the Telfairs.
The close friendship between Telfair and Few ended only with their deaths in the 1870s. Regular travelers, they met on many occasions. Chiefly, however, they kept in touch through frequent correspondence (Few's letters to Telfair remain undiscovered, and may not have not survived). Wherever Telfair happened to be--in Savannah, the northern states, or Europe--she wrote to her friend at least two or three times a month.
Telfair's letters offer unique insights into the daily life of her family and the changes wrought by the deaths of so many of its members. The letters also reveal the shared interests and imperatives at the base of her various relationships with elite women, but especially with Mary Few, whom Telfair memorably described as her "Siamese Twin." The two women, neither of whom ever wed, nonetheless discussed the rights and obligations of marriage as well as their own state of "single blessedness." They also conversed about shared intellectual interests--literature, lecture topics, women's education--as well as the foibles of common acquaintances. Here is a fascinating, unfamiliar world as revealed in what editor Betty Wood calls "one of the most remarkable literary exchanges between women of high social rank in the earlynational and antebellum United States."
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E. Suzanne Rowland
reviewed Mary Telfair to Mary Few: Selected Letters, 1802-1844 on July 20, 2010
Mary Telfair to Mary Few: Selected Letters, 1802-1844
This book was a comfort because it was not an article you could read in 20 minutes claiming to reveal some big truth - articles like these are so ubiquitous the millennial's internet world. Instead, this book is a full-fledged story about one man's journey towards finding identity, community and belonging within two vastly different cultures, especially amidst growing Islamophobia in America. "West of Kabul, East of New York" is bookended by Ansary's reaction to 9/11 and is filled in the middle with his journey towards a cohesive American-Afghanistani identity. Ansary meanders in his storytelling sometimes but in the end it all comes together. He shares the answers (or more so, non-answers - which I think are much more useful!) he's learned throughout his life. Granted, this is only one man's point of view, so he's likely missing a lot of the picture, but that doesn't lessen his experiences or his interpretations of them.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to understand a different point of view and a brief history of a culture that is so quickly judged by the media and the world.
Below are some of my favorite quotes:
"...human relationships are the only things that are utterly irreplaceable" - pg. 206
"For all of us, surrendering to diversity is probably the only plausible path left to attaining unity. The international community is supposedly committed to helping [Afghanistan] rebuild, but the lost world will not be reconstituted. Whatever rises from the rubble will be something new, and I suspect I may not have to decide who I am in order to take some part in this impending Afghanistan, because I am a kaleidoscope of parts now - an so is Afghanistan. So is the world, when you get right down to it." - pg. 285
"So you never know. That's what I have concluded. Even the past can change, depending on what happens next -- or at least the meaning of the past can change, which is what counts. Broken friendships can turn out to have been everlasting. Weakness can turn out to have been strengths. The pattern is never visible until it's over -- and it's never over. Endings don't exist." - pg. 300
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Add Mary Telfair to Mary Few: Selected Letters, 1802-1844, This volume gathers nearly half of some 300 letters written by Mary Telfair of Savannah to her best friend, Mary Few of New York. Telfair was born in 1790 to a wealthy, prominent, slaveholding Savannah family. Few, born in 1790 into equally affluent circu, Mary Telfair to Mary Few: Selected Letters, 1802-1844 to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Mary Telfair to Mary Few: Selected Letters, 1802-1844, This volume gathers nearly half of some 300 letters written by Mary Telfair of Savannah to her best friend, Mary Few of New York. Telfair was born in 1790 to a wealthy, prominent, slaveholding Savannah family. Few, born in 1790 into equally affluent circu, Mary Telfair to Mary Few: Selected Letters, 1802-1844 to your collection on WonderClub |
