Of the making of letter manuals, there seems to have been no end.

These apparent guides to how to write various kinds of letters were a quick sell for a publisher and a bookseller. And the author? Not exactly. And thereby hangs the tale of a family tree with a tangle of branches.

Letter manuals were produced in both England and the United States. (For a thorough discussion, see Empire of Letters: Letter Manuals and Transatlantic Correspondence, 1688-1820, by Eve Tavor Bannet. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.) Unsurprisingly, early American letter manuals were reprinted from British ones, often in creative variations. Letters were wantonly recycled, some appearing in book after book; thus, the American Fashionable Letter Writer (1862) includes most of the letters in The Fashionable Letter Writer (1819), reshuffled to some extent and added to. It isn’t a straight reprint: letters in the section on friendship are different, as are front and back matter.

And neither is original. The Fashionable Letter Writer (1819) is a reorganization of Magee’s London Letter Writer (published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1810), which is a reprint of The London Universal Letter Writer (1809), which contains letters from The New London Letter Writer (around 1800). The Letter Writer (1840) includes letters apparently taken unaltered from a British publication.

Publishers edited letters where they deemed necessary, usually when it came to geography; letters addressed to British addresses in British books are addressed to American addresses in the American reprints. American publishers also could be more specific: some letters in The Fashionable Letter Writer (1819) change the address from Boston to New York, in keeping with the publisher's city. American Fashionable Letter Writer (1862) tones down some of the language in The Fashionable Letter Writer (1819), changing “Heaven forbid you should ever relinquish the ease and independence of a single life, to become the slaves of a fool or tyrant’s caprice” to the blander “I … sincerely hope you will never relinquish the ease and independence of a single life, to become the slaves of a fool or tyrant’s caprice.” Some publishers added short extracts on etiquette or grammar. (*The Fashionable Letter Writer@ [1819] begins its section on composition by informing the reader that “[t]here are twenty-six letters in the English language, viz. a, b, c, d,” etc. Because of course someone reading a book on how to write wouldn't know that.)

Letter manuals had a reputation for being less than businesslike. Many letters are less models of letter-writing than they are tiny advice essays on how to operate in life: how to conduct a love affair, what is expected of a friendship. (Reviewing The Youth's Letter-Writer, one critic was surprised to find that the book was actually informative and useful, since every book with the phrase “letter-writer” in the title tended to be “a ridiculous collection of absurd forms of letters.”) In most letter manuals, melodrama abounds as samples of business letters flow into examples of how a rich elderly widow should decline a matrimonial offer from a poor young man, how a mother should decline the advances of a wouldbe suitor seeking to court a young woman he’s never even spoken to, how to plead the case of a sister whose father has disowned her, or how to request a loan from a friend (and how to decline the request). The Letter Writer (1840) includes an entire courtship.

The titles are often just as lavish. The Fashionable Letter Writer Or, Art of Polite Correspondence; Containing a Variety of Plain and Elegant Letters on Business, Marriage, Love, Relationship, Courtship, Friendship, &c. Adapted To General Use; With Forms of Complimentary Cards, and a New and Easy English Grammar; Peculiarly Applicable to Writing Letters with Accuracy (1819)

… is a reworking of Magee’s London Letter Writer, Being the Complete Art of Fashionable Correspondence, Composed in a Plain and Elegant Style, Containing Business Letters; Juvenile and Parental Letters; Youth to Maturity; Business, Love, Courthip and Marriage; Friendship and Consolation, Relationship, &c., &c., &c. with All Other Matter Befitting Such a Useful Work,

… which is a reprint of The London Universal Letter-Writer; or, Whole Art of Polite Correspondence. Containing, a Great Variety of Plain, Easy, Entertaining, & Familiar Original Letters, Adapted to Every Age & Situation in Life, But More Particularly on Business, Education, and Love. Together with Various Forms of Petitions, Suitable to the Different Wants, and Exigencies of Life: Proper Methods of Addressing Superiors and Persons of All Ranks, Both in Writing and Discourse; and Valuable Hints for Grammatical Correctness on All Occasions. To Which is Added, a Modern Collection of Genteel Complimentary Cards. Likewise Useful Forms in Law, Such as Wills, Bonds, & c. (revised edition),

… which contains letters from The New London Letter Writer, Containing the Compleat Art of Corresponding, with Ease, Elegance, and Perspicuity, on the Following Subjects, viz. Trade, Affection, Love, Courtship, Marriage, Friendship, Gratitude, History, Commerce, Industry, Prosperity, Prudence, Instruction, Generosity, Misfortunes, Consolation, Prodigality, Virtue, Vice, Piety, Wit, Mirth, Folly, Pleasure, Humanity, Morality, Education, Happiness, Business, Sickness, Death, Integrity, Economy, Affluence, Politeness, Fidelity, Riches, Duty and Concerns of Parents, Children, and other Relations, Masters, Mistresses, Officers, Soldier, Seamen, &c. to Which are Added Models for Cards, or Notes of Compliments, also, a Collection of Petitions, Adapted to Every Situation, Likewise Necessary Rules for Addressing Persons of All Stations, and Precedents of Bonds, Letters of Attorney, Wills, &c &c (new edition).

With titles like that, it's easy to see why the books were so popular.

The three letter manuals available here were published twenty years apart. Though several letters appear in all three, the variations subtly document changes in American culture and values.