My Life

West Norfolk, Connecticut: Self-published, 1898. Autobiography of Mary E. Beecher Snowe, born at Canaan Mountain near Norfolk, Connecticut in 1853, and who lived in West Norfolk, Connecticut at the time she wrote this brief booklet. Includes details of life in Litchfield County in the mid to late nineteenth century, including farming, the experience of having a home burnt to the ground (whereupon she was sent to her grandparents' in Goshen until the home was rebuilt), about travel to New Haven, marriage at age eighteen to live with her new husband's family, of hard work and little pleasure, of loss of a child, of illness, of a new war reminding one of the sorrows left by the Civil War. It is the story of a hard life, and the author makes no attempts to sugar-coat the facts as she sees them. Includes some original verse by the author. Mary Beecher, later Snowe, was most likely related to the Beecher family (Lyman Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, etc.), who were originally from Litchfield County, Connecticut but who later moved to Hartford. The booklet is undated but the last date mentioned in the text is 1898, and the paper and printing are consistent with that estimated date. Salmon-colored softcover, stapled binding, 28 pages. Covers chipped and soiled, staples rusted, covers stitched back into place. Internally much better with pages free from chips or tears, some age-toning, no names or other markings.. Soft Cover. Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.