Love across the color line : the letters of Alice Hanley to Channing Lewis / edited by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz and Kathy Peiss.

Contributor(s):

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, �1996.Description: 1 online resource (xii, 144 pages) : illustrationsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

0585083657
9780585083650

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Love across the color line.DDC classification:

306.7/092/2 20

LOC classification:

HQ801.3 .L68 1996eb

Other classification:

15.87
7,26

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction / Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz -- The Letters -- Unraveling the Mystery of the Letters / Phoebe Rolin Mitchell -- Love Across the Color Line / Kathy Peiss -- The Springfield of Channing Lewis, A Colored Man / Louis Wilson.

Action note:

digitized 2011 committed to preserve

Summary: This book examines a remarkable collection of twenty-seven letters written by a white working-class woman to her African American lover in 1907 and 1908. Stuffed inside a black lace stocking, the letters were hidden under the floorboards of a house in Northampton, Massachusetts, until their recent discovery. Reflecting the passions and anxieties of the moment, the letters were written by Alice Hanley, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants, to Channing Lewis, a cook in Springfield. Since the thoughts and feelings of women like Hanley have usually been filtered through middle-class reformers, her words provide a rare window into a realm of American social life seldom explored by historians. The letters are accompanied by essays that skillfully probe their larger meanings. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz introduces the letters, placing them in the context of their time, while journalist Phoebe Rolin Mitchell recounts the story of their discovery. Kathy Peiss explores Hanley's life, her negotiation of illicit love, and her desire for respectability, re-creating a dense and textured world of home, church, and town. Historian Louis Wilson unearths the trail left by Lewis and members of his extended family in Springfield. Reviewing the experiences of African Americans in that city, Wilson clarifies the economic, social, and political position of a black, middle-aged breadwinner during the difficult years of the early twentieth century.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings ( 0 )
Title notes ( 10 )

No physical items for this record

Includes bibliographical references.

This book examines a remarkable collection of twenty-seven letters written by a white working-class woman to her African American lover in 1907 and 1908. Stuffed inside a black lace stocking, the letters were hidden under the floorboards of a house in Northampton, Massachusetts, until their recent discovery. Reflecting the passions and anxieties of the moment, the letters were written by Alice Hanley, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants, to Channing Lewis, a cook in Springfield. Since the thoughts and feelings of women like Hanley have usually been filtered through middle-class reformers, her words provide a rare window into a realm of American social life seldom explored by historians. The letters are accompanied by essays that skillfully probe their larger meanings. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz introduces the letters, placing them in the context of their time, while journalist Phoebe Rolin Mitchell recounts the story of their discovery. Kathy Peiss explores Hanley's life, her negotiation of illicit love, and her desire for respectability, re-creating a dense and textured world of home, church, and town. Historian Louis Wilson unearths the trail left by Lewis and members of his extended family in Springfield. Reviewing the experiences of African Americans in that city, Wilson clarifies the economic, social, and political position of a black, middle-aged breadwinner during the difficult years of the early twentieth century.

Print version record.

Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL

http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide