Sarah Wister, best known for her account of household events during the British occupation of Philadelphia, continued to use journal, letter, and verse writing as a means of reflection throughout her life in the early republic. Her writings present a view of domestic, political, and religious life not available in formal histories and belles lettres of that period. In particular Wister's Revolutionary War journal, forty-eight manuscript pages that record her life from 25 September 1777 through June 1778, has fascinated historians and literary critics. In lively prose and with vigorous wit and humor, it reveals the self-centered interests of a well-read, observant, and gregarious sixteen-year-old who had been torn from her social circle in the city and sequestered at a relative's farm. Wister's Revolutionary War narrative displays a sense of self and of audience comparable to the writings of the mature Quaker Elizabeth Ashbridge and female novelists of the period such...