Hannah Webster Foster's two major Early American works with awealth of primary materials are now available in a Norton CriticalEdition. Published anonymously in 1797, Hannah Webster Foster's TheCoquette grabbed American interest with itsripped-from-the-headlines story of sex and scandal. A steady bestseller for decades, the seduction novel was passed down throughgenerations; indeed, its heroine became better known than thebook's author. A year later, Foster's lesser-known follow-up,The Boarding School, provided an equally compelling portraitof women at the turn of the nineteenth century in the sameepistolary form. Both novels can now be read in conversation witheach other in this new Norton Critical Edition based on therespective first edition texts; the author's original spelling,punctuation, and usage are retained while obvious printer's errorsare corrected. The texts are joined with a detailed introduction toFoster's legacy and Elizabeth Whitman?s life along withexplanatory annotations and a note on the text. "Sources and Contexts" unearths a wealth of original materialabout the environment the works were produced in and the real-lifepeople who inspired them. The three sections, "On Coquetry," "TheLife and Death of Elizabeth Whitman," and "The Nineteenth-CenturyLegacy," include new and corrected transcriptions of Whitman'sletters to Ruth and Joel Barlow, an inventory of items found atWhitman's room at her death, popular representations of ElizabethWhitman, and unauthorized sequels to The Coquette. Sevenillustrations, including three of Eliza Wharton, are included toenrich the reading experience. "Criticism" brings together nine diverse contemporaryinterpretations. Contributors include Carroll Smith-Rosenberg,Claire C. Pettengill, Julia A. Stern, Gillian Brown, Jeffrey H.Richards, and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, among others. Chronologies of the lives of Hannah Webster Foster and ElizabethWhitman are included along with a Selected Bibliography.