·S1 E9
Coffeehouse Confessions: Love, Sex, and Advice in 1690s London | Mary Beth Norton | I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer
Episode Description
Acclaimed historian Mary Beth Norton joins host Jennifer Robin Terry to discuss her book, I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer: Letters on Love & Marriage from the World's First Personal Advice Column, and the surprisingly modern history of relationship advice, courtship, heartbreak, and ghosting.
In 1691, London printer John Dunton launched the Athenian Mercury—a broadsheet originally intended as a 17th-century version of "Google" or "Wikipedia" for coffeehouse patrons. But before long, readers began submitting intimate questions Dunton never anticipated. What started as a general Q&A project rapidly evolved into the world's first personal advice column.
In this conversation, Norton reveals how women broke into a conversation meant for male coffeehouse patrons, how anonymous readers sought counsel on scandal and heartbreak, and why marriage in the 1690s was far more ambiguous than we imagine.
In this episode:
- The "Google" of the 17th Century: How a broadsheet for coffeehouse intellectuals shifted into a legendary advice project.
- Women Enter the Conversation: How female readers claimed space in a male-dominated publication.
- Slighting & Ghosting: Why romantic rejection in the 1690s mirrors has in commion with modern dating.
- "Fungible" Marriages: The chaotic era before 1753 when people weren't sure if they were legally wed.
- Confessions to Strangers: Why advice-seekers prefer the counsel of an anonymous expert over friends and family.
About the Guest
Dr. Mary Beth Norton is a distinguished historian of early American history and a pioneer in the field of women's history. In 1971, she became the first woman hired in Cornell University's History Department, where she taught for nearly five decades. Throughout her career, she has been a leading champion and trailblazer for women's history, serving as president of both the American Historical Association and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. Her landmark publications include Liberty's Daughters—a foundational text in colonial women's history—Founding Mothers & Fathers, In the Devil's Snare, and 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. In I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer, Norton translates 17th-century letters and answers from the Athenian Mercury into accessible prose for modern readers.
Buy the Book
Mary Beth Norton, I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer: Letters on Love & Marriage from the World's First Personal Advice Column (Princeton University Press).
Also mentioned: Mary Beth Norton, Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800
BONUS: Use my Bookshop.org links above to buy the book and you get instant literary cred, while the author, this podcast, and local indie bookshops get actual financial support. It’s the closest thing to ethically justified shopping you’ll do all week.
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