Best known for her culinary and domestic guides and the award-winning short story –Mrs. Washington Potts,” Eliza Leslie deserves a much more prominent place in contemporary literary discussions of the nineteenth century. Her writing, known for its overtly moralistic and didactic tonesãthough often presented with wit and humorãalso provides contemporary readers with a nuanced perspective for understanding the diversity among American women in Leslieês time. Leslieês writing serves as a commentary on gender ideals and consumerism; presents complicated constructions of racial, national, and class-based identities; and critiques literary genres such as the Gothic romance and the love letter. These criticisms are exposed through the juxtaposition of her fiction and nonfiction instructive texts, which range from lessons on literary conduct to needlework; from recipes for American and French culinary dishes to travel sketches; from songs to educational games. Demonstrating the complexity of choices available to women at the time, this volume enables readers to see how Leslieês rhetoric and audience awareness facilitated her ability to appeal to a broad swath of the nineteenth-century reading public.

This fourth volume continues a series emerging from the Penn State Project on Anglo-German and American-German Literary and Cultural Relations. All articles contained in the volume focus on the theme of the Project and reflect the wealth of scholarly resources to be found in the Allison-Shelley Collection, located in the Pattee Library of The Pennsylvania State University. Contents: Goethe in the American Annuals and Gift-Books, Philip Allison Shelley; John Quincy Adams and Alexander Hill Everett: Pathfinders of German Studies in America, Walter J. Morris; Alexander Hill Everett: Early Advocate of American Interest in German Literature and Culture, Kenneth B. Hunsaker and Maureen C. Devine; Henry Edwin Dwight: Evocator of American Interest in Germany, Kenneth B. Hunsaker; Thomas Medwin: Intermediary of German Literature and Culture, Heimy Taylor; The German Experience of William and Mary Howitt, William Stupp; James Lorimer Graham: Fosterer of American-German Literary Rela Andrew M. Kovalecs; Adolf Strodtmann's Letters to Bayard Taylor: A Further Fostering of German-American Relations, Edward J. Danis; Publications of Philip Allison Shelley, Edward J. Danis; Index