News-sheet — May 2009
I. Latest news
EE cracks 6,000 correspondents
This month's update takes EE's biographical database to just short of 6,500 entries! The Project's editorial team has worked hard to identify and provide biographical notes for hundreds of famous and not so famous people, from lawyers and landladies to presidents and playwrights.
Oxford DNB links to EE!
We are pleased to announce that this month the Oxford DNB has provided links to the EE correspondent pages for more than 1100 people appearing in both resources.
II. This month's update
Biographies
Over 500 new biographies have been provided for correspondents appearing in EE, many of them from the new edition introduced below. These include such figures as:
- Abigail Adams (1744–1818), American president's wife;
- John Adams (1735–1826), American president;
- Joel Barlow (1754–1812), American businessman, diplomat and poet;
- Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), American president;
- James Madison (1751–1836), American president;
- James Monroe (1758–1831), American president;
- Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), American writer and playwright;
- George Washington (1732–1799), American general and president;
- Benjamin West (1738–1820), American painter.
Editions
This month EE is pleased to announce the first volume of an important new edition of correspondence from the United States (the next two volumes are in progress).
Documentary history of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America volume XV: Correspondence: First session: March–May 1789.
This publication of the Johns Hopkins University Press includes letters to and from no fewer than five American presidents. The first session's correspondence gives some lively descriptions of life as a Congressman in New York and sharply-fought battles over such unexpected topics as the tax on molasses and the honorific titles appropriate for the United States president. See some sample letters below:
- 8 April 1789 — a letter from James Madison to Edmund Pendleton about in-fighting in Congress;
- 18 April 1789 — a letter from Catharine Greene to Jeremiah Wadsworth giving forthright opinions on the honesty of politicians;
- 12 May 1789 — a letter from George Washington to James Madison on the difficulty of being president;
- 13 May 1789 — a letter from John Adams to his wife about the practicalities of moving to New York.
