View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 8-2-2006 "Lines Written in my Closet": Volume One of Judith Sargent Murray's Poetry Manuscripts Tammy Mills Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Mills, Tammy, ""Lines Written in my Closet": Volume One of Judith Sargent Murray's Poetry Manuscripts." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2006. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/11 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “LINES WRITTEN IN MY CLOSET”: VOLUME ONE OF JUDITH SARGENT MURRAY’S POETRY MANUSCRIPTS by TAMMY MILLS Under the Direction of Reiner Smolinski ABSTRACT Once holding an esteemed literary reputation as author of The Gleaner (1798), an eclectic collection of prose and poetry serialized and sold by advance subscription, Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) was virtually forgotten for nearly two centuries. The 1986 discovery of manuscripts believed to have been lost prompted critics to evaluate anew Sargent Murray’s literary accomplishments. Previously unpublished poems and letters mark the prolific author as an important figure in early America’s self-conscious attempt to establish a national literature. This dissertation makes available Volume One of Sargent Murray’s poetry manuscript journals: two hundred and twenty previously unpublished poems and two that were published in The Massachusetts Magazine.