Prof Publishes Book of Transatlantic Correspondence
Dr. Donald Ulin, associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, has edited and annotated a book of letters from a 19th-century Quaker woman living on the Ohio frontier to her family in England, including Mary Howitt, one of the most popular writers of her day. “Writing Home: A Quaker Immigrant on the Ohio Frontier,” published by Bucknell University Press covers five years of letters from Emma Alderson, ranging from messages of longing for her family written while still docked off Liverpool, England, to descriptions of ante-bellum Cincinnati, where she and her husband settled after a journey by canal to Pittsburgh and a posh steamship trip down the Ohio River. The letters, Ulin said, describe in depth many of the experiences of immigrants at the time – a two-month voyage by sailing ship, the challenges of winter, first impressions of a new land and people, the trials o...