Hannah Webster Foster

Hannah Webster Foster was an early American novelist whose work examined women's education, reputation, and restricted choices in the new republic. The Coquette, or, The History of Eliza Wharton A Novel was first published anonymously in 1797 and presents its story through letters. Drawing on the widely reported case of Elizabeth Whitman, Foster gives Eliza a network of correspondents and competing expectations rather than reducing her life to a simple warning. The book circulated widely, yet Foster's authorship did not appear on its title page until decades after her death. Her second novel, The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, followed in 1798 and used letters and instruction to discuss female learning and conduct. Foster was also connected to newspaper writing and lived for many years in Brighton, Massachusetts, where her husband, John Foster, served as a minister. Modern scholarship reads her novels as important contributions to early American women's writing and print culture. Their epistolary forms also preserve several voices within each argument about conduct.