Lucinda, or, The mountain mourner

"In 1807, a small rural New York press published the first edition of P.D. Manvill's Lucinda; or, The Mountain Mourner. Over the next five decades no fewer than ten printings of the book appeared in three different states. Although it is a memoir, Lucinda reads like a sentimental epistolary novel, wehre the heroine is seduced, abandoned, and then dies in isolation shortly after her illegitimate child is born ... In addition to providing insight into nineteenthpcentury reading culture, Lucinda as a historical document, provides a glimpse into one family and one community dealing with radical social and economic issues in early America."--Cover.