Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) achieved international fame with the publication of her book Mysticism in 1911. Continuously in print since its original publication, Mysticism remains Underhill's most famous work, but in the course of her long career she published nearly forty books, including three novels and three volumes of poetry, as well as numerous poems in periodicals. She was the religion editor for Spectator, a friend of T. S. Eliot (her influence is visible in his last masterpiece, Four Quartets), and the first woman invited to lecture on theology at Oxford University. Her interest in religion extended beyond her Anglican upbringing to embrace the world's religions and their common spirituality.

In time for the centennial celebration of her classic Mysticism, this volume of Underhill's letters will enable readers and researchers to follow her as she reconciled her beliefs with her daily life. The letters reveal her personal and theological development and clarify the relationships that influenced her life and work. Hardly aloof, she enjoyed the interests, mirth, and compassion of close friendships.

Drawing from collections previously unknown to scholars, The Making of a Mystic shows the range of Evelyn Underhill's mind and interests as well as the immense network of her correspondents, including Sir James Frazier and Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore. This substantial selection of Underhill's correspondence demonstrates an exceptional scope, beginning with her earliest letters from boarding school to her mother and extending to a letter written to T. S. Eliot from what was to be her deathbed in London in 1941 as the London Blitz raged around her.

Although the fourteenth-century Italian merchant Francesco Datini has received attention from business historians, there has previously been no full study of his wife, Margherita Datini. Drawing on a sizable trove of Margherita’s correspondence held in the Archivio di Stato di Prato, including hundreds of letters she exchanged with Francesco, Ann Crabb investigates the social and economic importance of women’s roles as wives and mothers, early modern European views on honor, and the practice of letter writing in Margherita’s world.

Mother Teresa’s General Letters to Her Sisters is a collection of Mother Teresa’s circular letters to the members of her religious congregation, the Missionaries of Charity Sisters. Not intended for those outside her community, they were written informally and spontaneously, often with little editing. It was for Mother Teresa a way of “being present” to the members of her rapidly expanding religious order. Seemingly of little interest except for those to whom they were addressed, the letters reveal the spiritual depth and pragmatic leadership of one of the most popular modern saints, as well as the inner dynamics underlying one of the most flourishing religious congregations of the last century. At the same time, and perhaps surprisingly, these letters may also prove to be worthwhile reading for a wider audience. Something of God’s wisdom and love seems to shine through Mother Teresa’s guidance and counsels, giving the reader light and help even though he or she is not living the same religious life as one of the Sisters. Mother Teresa’s unpolished statements are at times humble and at times humbling. They inspire confidence and encourage generosity. Many a time they are humorous but more often challenging. They are sprinkled with serene joy but also permeated with deep pain. She delighted in her Sisters’ accomplishments yet did not shy away from correcting even the smallest flaw, which didn’t escape her very observant eye. Sometimes she sounded just like a mother, full of tender loving care, and at other times more like a commander in chief, exhibiting an iron will and uncompromising determination. In either case, her followers seemed to have been drawn into the mystery of her charism, endeavoring to keep pace with her. Was it the attraction of what could be termed as her “leadership style” in the unremitting service of the poorest of the poor, or the perceived love of a mother’s heart that made her so unanimously loved and admired by the members of her congregation? Or was it both? The letters will reveal the answer! Inspiring in their simplicity, the letters may well serve as a treasure trove where anyone from a reflective scholar to a caring mother of a family may find satisfaction for their spiritual palate. The attractiveness of perennial truth often makes Mother Teresa’s presentation of traditional spiritual themes likewise relevant for contemporary needs. In the context of Mother Teresa’s statement that “we are created for greater things, to love and to be loved’,” these letters will help the reader discover and experience God’s presence through the little miracles of His love in one’s daily life. They will inspire us “to put our love into living action,” sharing His love with all those we meet, and so make our lives “something beautiful for God.”

Key insights into women’s multi-dimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century.

Lady Mary Carey (c. 1609–c. 1680) was a noblewoman who examined her life and expressed her views in a handwritten manuscript that she intended for self-reflection and for sharing with restricted audiences of family and friends, rather than for print publication. Her poetry and prose, composed and revised between 1650 and 1658, were important enough to her inner circle, however, that her autograph manuscript was carefully copied by another hand in 1681. In addition to providing us with key insights into women’s multidimensional roles as wives, widows, and mothers during the seventeenth century in England, Carey’s work teaches us a great deal about a woman’s deepest emotional and spiritual states while confronting the hardships of life—from the fears of childbearing to the sorrows over child loss to the terrors of war.
 

In her memoir My Father, the Messiah, Gil Hochberg traces a father-daughter relationship as it transforms across decades—from intense closeness in childhood to a fraught distance as Hochberg’s father Yossi becomes increasingly convinced that he is the Messiah. After building a career as a statistician in the US, Yossi returns to Israel and becomes an avid Zionist, while having several psychotic episodes. Hochberg reconstructs her relationship with her father through an archive of letters between the two, as well as her father’s personal writings, painting a tender portrait of the non-normative family life within which Hochberg’s queer identity unfolds and a heart-rending account of her father’s mental decline. Hochberg crafts a powerful story of intimacy and loss that dovetails with sea changes in Israel’s religious and political environment since the 1990s.