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| 13 Jan 2026 | |
| Written by Chloe Sawbridge | |
| Blog |
About the Book
A clever, thoughtful, and funny history that reveals how the United States was built on a much more personal union of people.
From the woman in a Wisconsin newspaper who wanted “no brainless dandy or foppish fool” to the man with a glass eye who placed an ad in the New York Times hoping to meet a woman with a glass eye, the many hundreds of personal ads that author Francesca Beauman has uncovered offer an extraordinary glimpse into the history of our hearts’ desires, as well as a unique insight into American life as the frontier was settled and the cities grew. Personal ads played a surprisingly vital role in the couple by couple, shy smile by shy smile, letter by letter from a dusty, exhausted miner in California to a bored, frustrated seamstress in Ohio. Get ready for a new perspective on the making of modern America, a hundred words of typesetter’s blurry black ink at a time.
Recommended for:
About the OKS Author
Francesca Beauman attended King’s in Broughton House from 1992 to 1994. Since leaving King’s, she has achieved her BA in History from The University of Cambridge; hosted several British television shows specialising in comedy and history; became the Editorial Director of Persephone Books; and published seven books to date.
