SOURCE: "The 'Gleaner' Essays," in Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820, University Press, 1931, pp. 53-71.

In the following excerpt, from her full-length biography of Murray, Field provides a summary and overview of the stories, dramas, and essays contained in The Gleaner (1798).

The Gleaner essays represent Judith Sargent Murray's principal effort in the literary field. Consisting in a long series of papers and letters on religion, politics, manners and customs of the day, they embrace a wide range of subjects and serve as a medium for the expression of their author's opinion. The imaginary writer of the essays is a Mr. Vigillius, who calls himself a "Gleaner," for he has gleaned the material from all sorts of persons and places. Far from being a disconnected or unrelated collection, the series has a definite thread of story that runs steadily through all the...