Everyday ideas: socioliterary experience among antebellum New Englanders

Creating the text of life : motives and practices of diarists and correspondents

Creating texts from other texts : deploying preexisting literature

Everyday literature : writing within genre conventions

Everyday dissemination : literature sent via letters, newspapers, and bundles

On account of the donor : presenting and receiving literary gifts

Through many hands : lending and borrowing reading material

Literary performances : dissemination through reading aloud, recitation, and enactment

Receiving the word : literary socialization and modes of readings

Personal ideals and social realities : finding time to read

Within the collective : receiving public lectures and readings

Social imprints : reception of books and periodicals as objects

The sayings and doings of nobodies : everyday reception of the printed word.