This exploration of the life and autobiographical writing of a relatively unknown woman constructs a layered and multifaceted commentary on a range of significant issues - the economic upheaval of the late 1830s, religious controversy and its attendant spiritual doubt, the ongoing debate about education for women, and the importance of reading, writing, and community in women's lives. Ann Tilden (1811-1846) was a student of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a friend of Harriet Martineau, and the wife of Ezra Stiles Gannett, a prominent Unitarian minister. Her journals, letters, and sermon notes, written within the frame of Unitarian Boston, record a fascinating life. Defining herself by "free and frank" expression. Tilden borrowed the conventions of the many genres available to her, including novels, travel narratives, letters, and sermons. This wide-ranging combination shaped her daily expression, and her words illustrate how reader turns writer and how daily experience is reshaped for its particular audience.