Memoirs of an American Lady. By Anne MacVicar Grant. First Edition, First Printing. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. London, 1808.

Anne MacVicar Grant was a Scottish colonial settler in America and an acclaimed author in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the 1750s, she moved to colonial America with her family. She eventually married a British officer and lived in various places where he was stationed. She catalogued these experiences and eventually published them in this volume: Memoirs of an American Lady. It is a hybrid work. It is part biography, recounting the life of Grant’s American mentor, Madame Schuyler. But it is also a revealing portrait of Grant’s own experiences in America, and perhaps most importantly, an important history from the period. Grant was candid about the experiences of women in the colonies, who were often without agency. The work also describes colonial life and culture in honest terms, documenting the diversity of colonial America. While it is not often listed among major histories from the period, Memoirs of an American Lady is incredibly important because of its perspective. Where most accounts from colonial America focus on conquest, war, or governance, Grant reveals the day-to-day lives of women and regular people.

This two-volume set of the first edition is in about-fine condition. Bound in later period calf with gilt stamping and contemporary spine labels. Bindings very good, only some rubbing and bumping to edges. Text blocks about-fine, only minor creases, foxing, and soiling.

A scarce first edition of this important woman’s memoir from colonial America.