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Will You Write To Me?: Book One: The Courtship of Lizzie Andrews
The Courtship of Lizzie Andrews – Will You Write to Me? reveals an intimate chronicle of a young couple’s romantic courtship that began in 1850. Lizzie Andrews is just 14 years old when she receives her first letter from Edward Jarvis Tenney. Both from prominent New England families, her suitor is a 16-year old Harvard scholar and her half-cousin! One hundred and fifty years after they were written, Edward’s letters were discovered in a dusty attic. Will You Write to Me? includes Edward’s first 18 letters, authentic and unedited. Lizzie’s great, great granddaughter PJ Watters creates a vivid description of Lizzie’s life and viewpoint based on historic events. This is the first book of their romantic correspondence, followed by Will You Marry Me? and Will You Wait For Me?
244 pages, Paperback
First published December 19, 2014
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About the author
P.J. Watters
2 books2 followersPJ Watters and Elisabeth Johnson are a mother and daughter writing team. The discovery of Lizzie’s letters led to this trilogy, The Courtship of Lizzie Andrews consisting of Book one - Will you Write to Me?; Book two - Will you Marry Me? and Book three - Will you Wait for Me?
www.pjwattersbooks.com
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
PJ earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art at the University of California in Santa Barbara after studying theater, dance, writing and filmmaking at Interlochen Arts Academy, the University of Oregon, Moorpark College and the University of California’s Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts. She also holds a Master’s degree in health science from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. While raising 10 children, she published her first book, a biography of her father, and held a fill-time position as a healthcare executive. With three decades of community service on boards for United Way, American Red Cross, American Heart Association, Leadership Spokane and Rotary Club 21 of Spokane, PJ presently works at Inland Northwest Community Foundation and resides with her husband George and cat Mr. Fluffy in Spokane, Washington.
Elisabeth earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota and married A. Albert Johnson in 1951and had four daughters by 1959. An unfortunate accident took Al’s life in 1964 and Elisabeth returned to school to earn a teaching credential at Wayne State University in Detroit before moving the girls to California to begin a 13-year career teaching art. She also ran a successful business for 25 years creating stuffed animals and ceramic “Pot Pets.” Research for this trilogy occupied much of her time between 2003 and 2013. An avid geocacher, genealogist and archer, she has earned over seventy gold medals in Senior Games. Named “Queen Elisabeth” for archery following the 2010 Huntsman World Senior Games, she now resides with her dog Koko in Washington, Utah.
www.pjwattersbooks.com
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
PJ earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art at the University of California in Santa Barbara after studying theater, dance, writing and filmmaking at Interlochen Arts Academy, the University of Oregon, Moorpark College and the University of California’s Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts. She also holds a Master’s degree in health science from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. While raising 10 children, she published her first book, a biography of her father, and held a fill-time position as a healthcare executive. With three decades of community service on boards for United Way, American Red Cross, American Heart Association, Leadership Spokane and Rotary Club 21 of Spokane, PJ presently works at Inland Northwest Community Foundation and resides with her husband George and cat Mr. Fluffy in Spokane, Washington.
Elisabeth earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota and married A. Albert Johnson in 1951and had four daughters by 1959. An unfortunate accident took Al’s life in 1964 and Elisabeth returned to school to earn a teaching credential at Wayne State University in Detroit before moving the girls to California to begin a 13-year career teaching art. She also ran a successful business for 25 years creating stuffed animals and ceramic “Pot Pets.” Research for this trilogy occupied much of her time between 2003 and 2013. An avid geocacher, genealogist and archer, she has earned over seventy gold medals in Senior Games. Named “Queen Elisabeth” for archery following the 2010 Huntsman World Senior Games, she now resides with her dog Koko in Washington, Utah.
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May 20, 2016 Will You Write Me? The Courtship of Lizzie Andrews (Book One)
There is a grand and well respected tradition of the novel based on a found manuscript or letters. I am reminded of the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, which was an elaborate prologue titled The Customs House. In it, Hawthorne told the first person account of a young customs clerk who had discovered the two hundred year old manuscript that followed. The records were tied up with a ribbon and topped with the frayed embroidered letter ‘A.’
From Jonathan Swift to Barbara Kingsolver, such a novel was set up as the work of a fictitious editor or conservator, perhaps with commentary, perhaps with the author completely stepping aside. Also common was the epistolary novel, now even including the found e-mail version. When the editor supplies the connecting material and back stories, she is moving toward well-informed historical fiction. Getting further into this exercise, she realizes that the found material must be wrestled into something more structured and elegant than the correspondents managed on their own.
One discovers the source material and immediately starts to edit and weave the story into something that has literary merit as well as historic value. There is a tension then, between telling the whole story as it happened and limiting but crafting it into a series of episodes that follow traditional progressions of exposition, action and denouement.
Will You Write Me? The Courtship of Lizzie Andrews begins such a story crafted from 62 letters (of affection building into love) sent by Edward Tennant to Lizzie Andrews, who were 16 and 14, respectively, when the story starts in 1850. Edward is heading off to Harvard while Lizzie is pursuing her studies at home in Salem. The letters from Edward are of course remarkable to have all together, but the heart of this project was to take the clues in those letters and build Lizzie’s own story
Every person, place and event mentioned by Edward (to someone who already knew each reference) was researched by the authors so that Lizzie can authentically observe and write about what happens between the letters. For example, a mention of Jennie Lind coming to Boston allows for Lizzie to include a number of opinions, gossip and tales that flesh out that character. This material is handled as if it were contained in letters by Lizzie to Edward but is loose enough in form to allow for her internal narrative as well.
In one section, Lizzie describes the contents of a box of articles and letters about Lizzie’s mother who died when she was a child. She reads through obituaries and tributes. The scene is a recreation of what Lizzie’s descendants must have discovered in researching the book, a very touching realization.
Another bit of art is how the authors try to recreate the speech patterns of the characters. Edward’s letters themselves are polite, guarded, ornate and elaborate in ways that would be familiar to anyone who has read their share of Victorian novels, Jane Austin and the like. The surprise is that Edward is very closely mimicking what he has read in literature. It seems just like today where children learn how to interact from television and cartoons. In both cases, art imitates life which then imitates art. Without Edward’s letters setting the tone, Lizzie’s narrative might come off as overly formal. But taken together we can see the struggle of young people trying to say and do the right things in society, sometimes succeeding, sometimes just being award and naive.
There is something which is very American about this conversation, not perhaps as refined as Jane Austin. Edward tells of a raucous senior dance at Harvard where there were numerous injuries, “Many others had their heads and noses broken, though none were killed.” The annual party then dissolved with all returning very late, “some sober and some intoxicated as was the custom.” You can tell that Edward is dropping these asides so as to shock and excite Lizzie with his bold and dangerous life. We don’t however, get the impression that she is surprised. Anthony Trollope and de Tocqueville in the same years reported a similar mixture of refinement, arrogance and fisticuffs as being part of the American character.
Descriptions of tending to the sick, of mothers dying in childbirth and everyday inconveniences lend authenticity. Lizzie describes a fantastical hotel in Boston, six stories high, where a tour guide describes “in a most delicate manner. . .that one of the floors is intended to allow the guest to attend to those everyday matters for which most of us rely on a chamber pot.” What other wonders will the future bring?
A good portion of the letters and narrative has to do with what musician or singer, opera or lecturer is coming to town. Just like social media today, the word gets around and the fans storm the theater. Some competing fans are described clobbering each other in defense of their favorite singer.
Finally, I would say that we have not changed that much as teenagers in love. Edward writes:
Lizzie,
You dare not, need not, say a word,
For your true thoughts I do know
I am more alive, less absurd
When I see your beauty glow.
My thoughts of love I hide by day,
Illuminate by night,
In your presence, I do know
Your eyes see through my soul.
Your Ned
A little awkward and flawed but most certainly struggled over in the writing and treasured in the reading. Proust wrote of this eloquently, Dr. Zhivago wrote to Lara and about Lara just this way. And I wrote this on a post it note when I was 14
My love for you
Cannot be expressed
In word or rhyme
Or metered verse
Perfect in its antiquity
And though this in itself
May seem antiquated
Still it holds
The girl I wrote this to gave it back to me 42 years later. We are all the same today. This I think is the honest feeling that threads its way through so much of the literature we love. I’m looking forward to the rest of this journey with Lizzie and Edward.
There is a grand and well respected tradition of the novel based on a found manuscript or letters. I am reminded of the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, which was an elaborate prologue titled The Customs House. In it, Hawthorne told the first person account of a young customs clerk who had discovered the two hundred year old manuscript that followed. The records were tied up with a ribbon and topped with the frayed embroidered letter ‘A.’
From Jonathan Swift to Barbara Kingsolver, such a novel was set up as the work of a fictitious editor or conservator, perhaps with commentary, perhaps with the author completely stepping aside. Also common was the epistolary novel, now even including the found e-mail version. When the editor supplies the connecting material and back stories, she is moving toward well-informed historical fiction. Getting further into this exercise, she realizes that the found material must be wrestled into something more structured and elegant than the correspondents managed on their own.
One discovers the source material and immediately starts to edit and weave the story into something that has literary merit as well as historic value. There is a tension then, between telling the whole story as it happened and limiting but crafting it into a series of episodes that follow traditional progressions of exposition, action and denouement.
Will You Write Me? The Courtship of Lizzie Andrews begins such a story crafted from 62 letters (of affection building into love) sent by Edward Tennant to Lizzie Andrews, who were 16 and 14, respectively, when the story starts in 1850. Edward is heading off to Harvard while Lizzie is pursuing her studies at home in Salem. The letters from Edward are of course remarkable to have all together, but the heart of this project was to take the clues in those letters and build Lizzie’s own story
Every person, place and event mentioned by Edward (to someone who already knew each reference) was researched by the authors so that Lizzie can authentically observe and write about what happens between the letters. For example, a mention of Jennie Lind coming to Boston allows for Lizzie to include a number of opinions, gossip and tales that flesh out that character. This material is handled as if it were contained in letters by Lizzie to Edward but is loose enough in form to allow for her internal narrative as well.
In one section, Lizzie describes the contents of a box of articles and letters about Lizzie’s mother who died when she was a child. She reads through obituaries and tributes. The scene is a recreation of what Lizzie’s descendants must have discovered in researching the book, a very touching realization.
Another bit of art is how the authors try to recreate the speech patterns of the characters. Edward’s letters themselves are polite, guarded, ornate and elaborate in ways that would be familiar to anyone who has read their share of Victorian novels, Jane Austin and the like. The surprise is that Edward is very closely mimicking what he has read in literature. It seems just like today where children learn how to interact from television and cartoons. In both cases, art imitates life which then imitates art. Without Edward’s letters setting the tone, Lizzie’s narrative might come off as overly formal. But taken together we can see the struggle of young people trying to say and do the right things in society, sometimes succeeding, sometimes just being award and naive.
There is something which is very American about this conversation, not perhaps as refined as Jane Austin. Edward tells of a raucous senior dance at Harvard where there were numerous injuries, “Many others had their heads and noses broken, though none were killed.” The annual party then dissolved with all returning very late, “some sober and some intoxicated as was the custom.” You can tell that Edward is dropping these asides so as to shock and excite Lizzie with his bold and dangerous life. We don’t however, get the impression that she is surprised. Anthony Trollope and de Tocqueville in the same years reported a similar mixture of refinement, arrogance and fisticuffs as being part of the American character.
Descriptions of tending to the sick, of mothers dying in childbirth and everyday inconveniences lend authenticity. Lizzie describes a fantastical hotel in Boston, six stories high, where a tour guide describes “in a most delicate manner. . .that one of the floors is intended to allow the guest to attend to those everyday matters for which most of us rely on a chamber pot.” What other wonders will the future bring?
A good portion of the letters and narrative has to do with what musician or singer, opera or lecturer is coming to town. Just like social media today, the word gets around and the fans storm the theater. Some competing fans are described clobbering each other in defense of their favorite singer.
Finally, I would say that we have not changed that much as teenagers in love. Edward writes:
Lizzie,
You dare not, need not, say a word,
For your true thoughts I do know
I am more alive, less absurd
When I see your beauty glow.
My thoughts of love I hide by day,
Illuminate by night,
In your presence, I do know
Your eyes see through my soul.
Your Ned
A little awkward and flawed but most certainly struggled over in the writing and treasured in the reading. Proust wrote of this eloquently, Dr. Zhivago wrote to Lara and about Lara just this way. And I wrote this on a post it note when I was 14
My love for you
Cannot be expressed
In word or rhyme
Or metered verse
Perfect in its antiquity
And though this in itself
May seem antiquated
Still it holds
The girl I wrote this to gave it back to me 42 years later. We are all the same today. This I think is the honest feeling that threads its way through so much of the literature we love. I’m looking forward to the rest of this journey with Lizzie and Edward.
March 28, 2015
This book had my interest from the first page. I am a total history buff and love a good story weaved around historic times. PJ Watters takes letters written to her Great Great Grandmother by her Great Great Grandfather and creates a picture of the time when these letters were written. It is fascinating to learn about that era and get a glimpse of what life was like for two teens falling in love. I learned a few things about that time frame and found my self looking things up to get even more info on the events described in the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves history, romance and family history. Well done PJ Watters and Elisabeth Johnson.
December 30, 2015
I love reading books about real people who lived long ago. This one has actual photographs of the main characters. My favorite thing is noticing how similar life was for young people back then: first loves, rowdy college life--some things don't really change. But imagine a teenager now waiting for weeks for a letter from her crush. It's the little details that intrigued me. I enjoyed reading this book so much, I re-read Little Women (from the same time period) while waiting for Book Two!
June 10, 2015
Ah, sweet love. This book is a series of actual unedited letters written by Edward to Lizzie, the rest of the story are fictional journal entries written by Lizzie after each of Edward’s letters.
Read full review in the 2015 June issue of InD'tale Magazine.
Read full review in the 2015 June issue of InD'tale Magazine.
December 28, 2015
Loved the book. The book was written so that it was easy to visualize that period in time. Enjoyed reading it and look forward to the next installment.
January 4, 2016
If you are a fan of books that capture a young America and blossoming love at its civilized best (through the lost art of letter writing), this book by PJ Watters and her mother will draw you in from page one.
"Will You Write To Me?" is the kind of true story that can rest comfortably on the adult or young adult book shelf. Its wide-ranging appeal is largely due to the way the characters and the Massachusetts of 1850 are so seamlessly and vividly imagined. One feels as though you are a part of the conversation in Edward and Lizzie's letters and indeed are sitting beside them in the drawing room. You cheer for them as they grow to know one another and themselves and as they negotiate the time and distance that separates them.
This book is impeccably researched and powerfully evocative of time and place and the agelessness of enduring love. I look forward to book two!
"Will You Write To Me?" is the kind of true story that can rest comfortably on the adult or young adult book shelf. Its wide-ranging appeal is largely due to the way the characters and the Massachusetts of 1850 are so seamlessly and vividly imagined. One feels as though you are a part of the conversation in Edward and Lizzie's letters and indeed are sitting beside them in the drawing room. You cheer for them as they grow to know one another and themselves and as they negotiate the time and distance that separates them.
This book is impeccably researched and powerfully evocative of time and place and the agelessness of enduring love. I look forward to book two!
March 23, 2015
This book is so much more than a romance. Entwined with actual historical events makes this come alive like frosting on the cake.
I loved it and can hardly wait to read book II.
Thanks PJ
I loved it and can hardly wait to read book II.
Thanks PJ
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews