Matrimony, Inc. by Francesca Beauman

Matrimony, Inc. by Francesca Beauman

A clever, thoughtful, and funny history that reveals how the Union of states was built on a much more personal union of people.

What connects lonely homesteaders in 18th century New England to the millions of us today who use dating apps/websites to help find a partner? At once heartwarming and heartbreaking, Matrimony Inc. reveals the common thread that weaves its way through not just marriage and relationships over the centuries, but American social history itself: advertising for love.

Amazingly, America's first personal ad appeared in the Boston Evening Post as early as 1759. A person who flatters himself that he shall not be thought disagreeable was in search of a young lady, between the age of eighteen and twenty-three, of a middling stature, brown hair, of good Morals. 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 no brainless dandy or foppish fool 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 hearts' 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 typesetter's blurry black ink at a time.

So anxious are our settlers for wives that they never ask a single lady her age. All they require is teeth, 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, Matrimony Inc. 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?

Beauman, Francesca: - Francesca Beauman earned a first-class degree in history from Cambridge University. Her first book, The Pineapple: King of Fruits, was published in the UK in 2005 and lauded by critics. She has been the host of numerous British television programs and was recently named one of the top fifty Brit Young Things. Francesca divides her time between London and Los Angeles.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781643135786
ISBN 10	1643135783
Title	Matrimony, Inc.
Author	Francesca Beauman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Pegasus Books
Year published	2020-10-06
Number of pages	208
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable