The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison

By Dolley Madison,

Book cover of The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison

Book description

From modest Quaker beginnings as the child of financially insecure parents and the wife of a stolid young lawyer to the excitement and challenges of life as the nation's first First Lady - arguably the most influential role in the American government's formative years - Dolley Payne Todd Madison (1768-1849)…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Because Dolley Madison didn't keep a diary, her letters are the best examples that we have of her personality. This social butterfly shows us how she slyly tried to set up a young woman to be romantically involved with her son. 

Yet for all of her Southern charm and pretension, Dolley had a steely side. After her first husband died, she wrote to her brother-in-law demanding the inheritance owed to her. After all, women couldn't easily get a job to support themselves. Her letters also show her pride in her parents for emancipating their slaves. Her most famous letter about…

From Jane's list on the War of 1812.

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