The Signal of Regard: William Godwin’s Correspondence Networks

Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The letter is a gift of attention, in which the writer seeks to communicate regard by means of a signal crafted uniquely for the recipient. The concept of regard, as developed by the economic historian Avner Offer, indicates both attention and approbation. Adam Smith took it to be the driver of human exchange in emotions as much as in commerce. The exchange of regard captures the logic of a prodigious correspondent like William Godwin. The personalization of the gift signal is an attempt to convey an obligation to reciprocate. Godwin was attuned to this obligation and worked hard to fulfil it—with varying degrees of success. His correspondents encompassed almost every significant literary and political figure on the political left from the era of the French Revolution to the 1832 Reform Act. The children of the Godwin household were nourished by bonds of reciprocity, which they developed and extended when, in adulthood, they dispersed across Europe. The letters of Godwin and his correspondents embody a larger conversation, allowing intimacy to be preserved at a distance. The signals they once created for each other may now be received by us.