Professor Neuman teaches and researches in the fields of early American literature and book history. In Jeremiah’s Scribes: Creating Sermon Literature in Puritan New England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), she delves into the world of sermon notetaking, shifting attention from pulpit to pew, demonstrating how sermon auditors helped shape this dominant genre of Puritan literature. Professor Neuman’s research centers print and manuscript archival sources — ranging from notebooks kept by Puritans when they were listening to sermons, to amateur manuscript poetry, to readers’ marks in print books, to the history and context of the Mather family’s vast personal library. Hands-on workshops with materials at the American Antiquarian Society and Clark University’s Special Collections are a common feature of her seminars, and she encourgages her students to explore opportunities for original research in the archives at the AAS. Professor Neuman’s teaching interests include American literature through the Civil War, 17th-century transatlantic literature, early American print culture, and poetry.
Meredith Neuman
Associate Professor, English
- About
- Scholarly and creative works
- Awards and grants
Degrees
- Ph.D. in English, University of California, Los Angeles, 2004
- B.A. in Classical Languages and Literature, University of Chicago, 1989
Affiliated Department
Scholarly and creative works
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“Coming to Terms with Early American Poetry”
Symposium on American PoetrySalem, MAMarch2026Sponsored by American Literature Association and The Society for the Study of American Poetry -
“The Muse Stripped Bare by Her Antiquarians, Even: Thoughts on the Visual Culture of Anne Bradstreet”
Society of Early Americanists Biennial ConferenceNotre Dame, INJune2025Sponsored by Society of Early Americanists -
Respondent for panel “To Be and Not to Be an Author in a Transatlantic Age of Print”
Society of Early Americanists Biennial ConferenceNotre Dame, INJune2025Sponsored by Society of Early Americanists -
“Book Copies and Textual Desire: Reading Early American Poetry Against the Imprint” (Sarah Robins, Tufts University, respondent), American Literature and Culture Seminar Series, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University
February2023 -
A History of American Puritan Literature
Chapter: Manuscript CulturePublished by Cambridge University Press2020 -
Manuscript Cultures in Seventeenth-Century New England
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Widows and Orphans; or, Loss and Longing in the Archive
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US Popular Print Culture to 1860, eds. Ronald J Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray
Chapter: “Manuscript Culture & Print”Published by Oxford Univesity Press2019 -
Stories of Nation: Fictions, Politics, and the American Experience, eds. Martin Griffin and Christopher Herbert.
Chapter: “Failures of Consensus: Contesting Election Sermons in Puritan New England”Published by University of Tennessee Press2017 -
Jeremiah’s Scribes: Creating Sermon Literature in Puritan New England
Material Texts2013Philadephia PA -
“The Versified Lives of Unknown Puritans”
The Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America2013Vol. 107Issue #3 -
“Beyond Narrative: John Dane’s A Declaration of Remarkable Providences”
Early American Literature2005Vol. 40Issue #2 -
The Oxford Handbook of Puritanism, eds. Francis J. Bremer, Ann L. Hughes, and Greg Salazar (forthcoming)
Chapter: “Preaching and Listening”
Awards and grants
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Vera Wolfe Earhart week-long fellowship
William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
Jun. 1, 2026 – May. 31, 2027