E.L., The Bread Box Papers: A Biography of Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence

By Helen Hartman Gemmill

Dickens called her "that little darling", Thackerey thought her "easy to fall in love with". President James Buchanan was "an immense friend", and Henry Adams modeled the heroine of a best-selling novel after her. She danced with Prince Albert and traveled Italy with General George McClellan. A nineteenth century female Zelig, she managed to be in all the right places with all the right people. As the wife and widow of diplomat T. Bigelow Lawrence -- of the Boston Lawrences -- she charmed artists, the literati, and social leaders of her day in London, Florence, and Washington. Moreover, she wrote all the details in missives "to Mama" back in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a trove of letters signed E.L. that were recently discovered in an antique bread box and became the basis of this spirited biography.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805928707
• ISBN13: 9780805928709
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.