This book investigates the comprehensive history of women's writing in the early modern period, spanning from the mid-sixteenth century to 1700, while simultaneously analyzing the reception and transmission of these texts over time. Paul Salzman, a scholar of early modern literature, utilizes a wide array of primary sources to document how these works were published, circulated, and anthologized. He argues that the history of women's writing is inseparable from the history of its reception, providing a cultural framework for understanding how literary taste has shifted across centuries.

Experts recognize this work as a foundational text for understanding the breadth of early modern female authorship and the mechanisms of literary canonization. Readers frequently note the clarity of the historical synthesis and the value of the book's focus on the long-term reception of these materials.