Imaginary Friends

Representing Quakers In American Culture, 1650-1950

BY JAMES EMMETT RYAN

Brief Description:
Since their arrival in the American colonies in the 1650s, Quakers' spiritual values, social habits and their example - whether real or imagined-has served as a religious conscience for an expanding nation. Spanning four centuries, Imaginary Friends takes readers through these representations of Quaker life in a range of literary and visual genres, from theological debates, missionary work records, political theory, and biography to fiction, poetry, theater, and film. It illustrates ways that these "imaginary" Friends have offered a radical model of morality, piety, and anti-modernity against which the evolving culture has measured itself.

University of Wisconsin 2009 285 PP. Paper

$26.95 (in stock)