Browse Similar Items
MEMOIRS OF AN AMERICAN LADY: WITH SKETCHES OF MANNERS AND SCENERY IN AMERICA, AS THEY EXISTED PREVIOUS TO THE REVOLUTION.
(New York: Printed for Samuel Campbell by D. and G. Bruce, 1809). 180 x 108 mm. (7 x 4 1/4"). viii, 344 pp. First American Edition.
Contemporary American tree calf, smooth spine divided into panels by gilt rules, red morocco label (one joint very expertly restored, one hinge just as expertly reinforced). See: Sabin 28296; Howes 303. Blain, et al., Feminist Companion to English Literature, pp. 451-52. The leaves just a shade less than bright (due to paper quality), but AN UNUSUALLY FINE COPY (especially for an American imprint from this period)--entirely clean and fresh internally, in a completely sound binding.
Extremely appealing in its very simple early American binding, this early account of life in New York before the Revolution largely centers on the author's relationship with the Schuyler family, and especially Catalina Schuyler (1701-78), the "American Lady" referred to in the title. First printed in London in 1804, the work is considered a crucial source of information about domestic life in colonial New York during the period. The daughter of a British soldier, author Anne Grant (née Macvicar, 1755-1838) went with her family at age three to New York, where her father was stationed during the Seven Years War. Grant would frequently stay with Madame Schuyler as a young girl, and, in the words of DNB, "clearly owed much of her upbringing to her generous benefactor, who even offered to adopt her." Using Schuyler as a focal figure, Grant here recounts the customs, family life, politics, and relations with Indigenous peoples in the Hudson Valley, painting a vivid portrait of her dear friend and the wider community." The "Feminist Companion" notes that the work "ranks high as biography . . ., autobiography . . . , and as history, with both detail and elegiac feelings about colonial life, especially the 'distinguished race' of Mohawks." Our author returned to Britain after 10 years among the colonists and later married the Reverend James Grant, moving to his parish in highland Scotland, where she tended a farm and gave birth to 12 children. Upon the sudden death of her husband in 1801, and faced with serious financial difficulties, she was persuaded by friends to publish in 1803 "Poems on Various Subjects," a substantial volume, which garnered approximately 3,000 subscribers. The present work was first issued in London in 1808, and appeared in the States the following year (in addition to our New York imprint, there was also a Boston imprint by a different publisher). Our copy of the first American printing is especially desirable for being in excellent condition internally and bound in a contemporary binding of winning simplicity. (ST20971)
Price: $1,100.00