Letters, 1737-1780

Manuscript copies in multiple hands, of 62 letters to or by Madame du Deffand, primarily letters from du Deffand to the duchesse du Choiseul; also two letters to Horace Walpole. The letters primarily concern social subject such as dinners, news of friends, current reading, and routine expressions of friendship. In one letter, she tells Horace Walpole she is reading de Boutigny's Tarsis et Zelie; in another, she mentions that Sedaine read to her his Paris Inedite. She also discusses the American Revolution in a letter dated October 24, 1777, which reports that some say General Burgoyne has been taken, while others say that Philadelphia has fallen