On Tuesday, 3 March 2022 (Seventh Week), at Ertegun House (37A St. Giles’), from 12 until 2 pm, the TORCH Enlightenment Correspondences Network will be holding a discussion-based session about the letter as a gift and an object of value.

We ask all attendees to bring one letter that provides an interesting take on how eighteenth-century letter-writers attributed value to their letters and/or conceived of their letters as gifts. We will circulate in advance two pieces of background reading, and at the start of the session Jennifer Wood and Kelsey Rubin-Detlev will offer a 15-20 minute introduction to raise various theoretical questions about letters as objects of exchange, as gifts, currency, debts, and obligations.

Please RSVP by Tuesday, 24 February to [email protected] to receive the background reading and to help us get an accurate count for our free sandwich lunch.