Overview
Have you ever used a dating app or website? Then you have more in common than you know with lonely homesteaders in 18th century New England.Ā At once heartwarming and heartbreaking,Ā Matrimony, Inc.Ā reveals the unifying thread that weaves its way through not just marriage and relationships over the centuries, but American social history itself: advertising forĀ love.
Amazingly, Americaās first personal ad appeared in the Boston Evening Post as early as 1759. A āperson who flatters himself that he shall not be thought disagreeableā was in search of a āyoung lady, between the age of eighteen and twenty-three, of a middling stature, brown hair, of good Moralsā¦ā As family-arranged marriages fell out of fashion, "Husband Wanted" or "Seeking Wife" ads were soon to be found in every state in the nation.
From the woman in a Wisconsin newspaper who wanted āno brainless dandy or foppish foolā to the man with a glass eye who placed an ad in the New York Times hoping to meet a woman with a glass eye, the many hundreds of personal ads that author Francesca Beauman has uncovered offer an extraordinary glimpse into the history of our heartsā desires, as well as a unique insight into American life as the frontier was settled and the cities grew. Personal ads played a surprisingly vital role in the West: couple by couple, shy smile by shy smile, letter by letter from a dusty, exhausted miner in California to a bored, frustrated seamstress in Ohio. Get ready for a new perspective on the making of modern America, a hundred words of typesetterās blurry black ink at a time.
āSo anxious are our settlers for wives that they never ask a single lady her age. All they require is teeth,ā declared the Dubuque Iowa News in 1838 in a state where men outnumbered women three to one. While the dating pools of 21st century New York, Chicago or San Francisco might not be quite so dentally-fixated,Ā Matrimony Inc.Ā will put idly swiping right on Tinder into fascinating and vividly fresh historical context. What do women look for in a man? What do men look for in a woman? And how has this changed over the past 250 years?
This book title, Matrimony, Inc. (From Personal Ads to Swiping Right, a Story of America Looking for Love), ISBN: 9781643135786, by Francesca Beauman, published by Pegasus Books (October 6, 2020) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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