Manuscript, in a multiple hands, of a collection of newspaper articles, prints, drawings, letters, and autobiographical text, primarily relating to Grimstone's published writing. The volume includes "my first prose [which] was the following letter inserted in the Polemical Inquirer. The Editors letter to me is on the oppposite side," numerous pieces of prose and verse which appeared in "The Ladies Monthly Museum" and "The Theatrical Inquisitor," and printed musical scores, of which she notes, "Part of my engagement with the proprietors of the Ladies Monthly museum, was to supply new words to the Irish melodies and other airs," as well as numerous business correspondence with editors and personal letters. The volume is prefaced by an introduction in which Grimstone gives an account of her recent "nervous disorder" during which she destroyed much of her writing. She declares, "My Own Scrap Book in which i mean to be as egotistical as I can and talk of nothing but myself, or what relates to myself. If I live to see the hundred and odd years, I am promised; I & this book shall like to converse together when perhaps few others will care to give me companionship. If I die early, then this book will be still a part of me remaining and speaking to those that loved me."
Description:
In English., Laid in at end: letters and scraps of paper with printed poems., Laid in at beginning: typed list of works attributed to Grimstone in the British Museum Catalogue., and Binding: half calf.
Subject (Geographic):
England and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
Grimstone, Mary Leman (Rede)
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Letters, Music, Women authors, Women, Conduct of life, Periodicals, and Social life and customs
