The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 27; pp. 133 - 136
• Main Author: Wall, Cynthia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Apologies; Conformity; Correspondence; Defoe, Daniel (1660-1731); Epistolography; Families & family life; Handwriting; Politics; Reception
• ISSN: 0954-0970

The rich introduction covers 'The Scope and Significance of Defoe's Correspondence', 'Epistolary Conduct and Education', 'Defoe's Epistolary Style and Personality', 'Politics and Intelligence', 'Defoe's Material Letters', 'Publication and Reception History', and 'Missing Letters'. Besides the political correspondence with Harley, the volume includes 'specimens of Defoe's correspondence with other politicians, tradesmen, clergymen, publishers, fellow writers, and members of his family' (1). Some of Defoe's most moving letters are those in which he empathises with the spiritual condition of his correspondent' (Ixi). Besides Harley, other correspondents of interest here include the Earl of Nottingham ('Defoe wrote to him as a fugitive from justice following the fallout of the publication on 1 December 1702 of The Shortest Way with the Dissenters' [3]); William Patterson ('Presbyterian banker and political agent' [10]); William Penn (attributed; 'they saw eye to eye on occasional conformity in 1703' [16]); John Fransham (a Dissenter and linen-draper who distributed Defoe's works in Norwich; later, Horace Walpole's rental agent [109]); William Melmoth ('religious polemicist who shared Defoe's view of the immorality of the stage' [237]); John Bell ('Though the Union was a fait accompli, [. . Wharton was regularly insulted in the street during the trial' [484]); William Carstares ('one of the most influential ministers of the Church of Scotland', between whom and Defoe was 'a mutual respect and friendship' [727]); Samuel Keimer (a printer and member of the millenarian French Prophets: '(he followed Leviticus in wearing his beard untrimmed and adorned himself with several long green ribbons)' [828]); Queen Anne ('I was the first Man that ever was oblig'd to seek a Pardon for writing for the Hanover Succession' [776]); and, towards the very end, family: his daughter and son-in-law Sophia and Henry Baker (with Henry, arguing about when to fork over Sophia's dowry; the letter to Sophia is 'his only surviving letter to a woman, coming about six weeks after her marriage' [871], and in which he apologises: 'if I Took Fire more Than another would have done, it was because I Lov'd you More Than Ever any lovd, or will or can love you (he that has you Excepted)' [871]).