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Webster's Ready-Made Love Letters ... (1873)
by the author of "Webster's Practical Letter-Writer," "Webster's Chairman's Manual," "Webster's Business Man," and "Webster's Reciter."
The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
BJ2101 .W55 1873
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Webster’s Ready-Made Love Letters, published by Robert De Witt, is a guidebook for men and women throughout all stages on their relationships. This book is a compilation of letters organized by the occasion one would write them, such as first encounter, courtship, and engagement. For women, it teaches how to write to suitors, fiancés, husbands, or fathers in a suitable, proper way. Most of these letters, for women to men, are signed “Yours obediently,” creating a loss of independence and agency. Despite this, there are a few unique letters where women regain that independence: turning down a disrespectful suitor or bringing attention to an unfaithful husband. However, these letters also bring to light that some wives are forced into unhappy, unwanted marriages, like a woman who is dreadfully uninterested in a man, but her parents force her to visit him despite how unappealing she finds him.