BETHEL — A new edition of “Write Quick: War and a Woman’s Life in Letters, 1835–1867,” a look at the Civil War era from the perspective of a Northern woman from Maine, will soon be available.

The nearly 600-page volume was first published in 2010 by Winoca Press of Wilmington, N.C., but that company’s recent decision to downscale left the fate of “Write Quick” in jeopardy.

Thanks to a publishing agreement between the book’s two editors and the Bethel Historical Society, softcover copies will be available through the society’s museum shop by early June.

Containing more than 50 photographs, illustrations, maps and an exhaustive index, “Write Quick” tells of one New England family’s daily experiences on the Civil War home front and battlefield.

The book was edited by poet and author Ann Chandonnet and Bethel native Roberta Gibson Pevear, a descendant of Eliza Bean Foster, the main character of this book. “Write Quick” is based on original documents, letters and diaries Pevear donated to the society in 2005.

While Andrew Bean, a teacher and farmer from Bethel, wrote from the eastern battlefields of Bull Run and South Mountain, his brother-in-law, Henry C. Foster, posted lines from New Orleans, Fort Monroe and Sabine Pass in the western theater.

Replies from Eliza Bean Foster, describe children and family — and sometimes desperate circumstances. The book traces her life from New England mill girl, to young married woman and mother, to war widow and victim of consumption.

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