Farrar, Mrs. John; [Farrar, Eliza Ware]. Recollections of Seventy Years. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866. Second Edition. [10596]
Teal publisher's cloth, 7 1/4 x 5 inches, light wear to the edges with a bit of fraying at the top of the spine, tight. viii, 331 clean pp.; one page with dark offsetting from a paper bookmark laid in. Good. Hardcover.
Eliza Ware Farrar (1781-1870), b. Dunkirk, France; d. Springfield, Massachusetts. She was born as Eliza Ware Rotch to an American family of successful whaling merchants. Her family left France for England during the French Revolution and after a great financial loss, she was sent to live with her grandparents in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was an active member of the Society of Friends, eventually aligning with the more liberal New Lights of that church. She married John Farrar, a professor of mathematics at Harvard. Mrs. Farrar was the author of at least seven books for young readers.
The book offered here are her recollections of her busy and useful life with observations of people she had known. These include Elizabeth Fry, Lady Hamilton, Lord Nelson, Miss Edgeworth, Lady Mansfield, and Miss Delia Bacon. Subjects she expresses views regarding include the French Revolution, Castle Hall, the English Stage, the French Stage, "Mariages de Convenance," Unhappy Marriages, Greenwich Observatory, Hannah More's Convert, A Converted Jew, Salt Mines, Switzerland, the Weariness of Etiquette, Parental Authority, Lunatic Asylums, Courts of Law, &c.
