I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer: Letters on Love and Marriage from the World's First Personal Advice Column

Author/Contributor(s):	Norton, Mary Beth
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Date:	04/22/2025
Binding:	Hardcover
Condition:	NEW

"In the late seventeenth century, the bookseller John Dunton began soliciting anonymous questions for a new broadsheet periodical, The Athenian Mercury, that he hoped would provide entertainment and discussion fodder for patrons of London's many coffeehouses. These questions, dutifully answered by Dunton and his two collaborators, covered a wide range of topics, from the Bible to medicine and law. But shortly after the periodical launched, Dunton began to receive many questions about personal relationships, particularly about courtship, marriage, and sex. In this book, Mary Beth Norton presents a broad selection of these personal inquiries from The Athenian Mercury, a group of questions and answers that constitute the first known personal advice column. Through these entertaining exchanges, organized by theme, contemporary readers gain a unique glimpse into some of the social and romantic conventions and personal preoccupations of the day. The book includes an introduction that provides historical context about the Mercury, as well as about legal and social conventions of the time, and a list of further reading"--