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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
Webster’s Ready-Made Love Letters, published by Robert De Witt, is a guidebook for men and women throughout all stages of their relationships. This book is a compilation of letters organized by the occasion on which one would write them, such as a first meeting, 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,” establishing a woman's subordination to her husband. Despite this, there are a few unique letters where women regain power and authority: 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 disgusting she finds him.