A memoir of Miss Hannah AdamsLee, Hannah Farnham Sawyer
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A memoir of Miss Hannah Adams
Lee, Hannah Farnham Sawyer
Adams, Hannah, 1755-1831; Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography
For a number of years, no incidents occurred in the life of Miss Adams
which claim peculiar notice. It is a long road, with only here and
there a milestone. She continued to write, but on subjects not at all
congenial with her own taste. She was enthusiastic, and a great lover
of poetry and fiction; but on these subjects she distrusted herself,
and made it her constant study to accommodate her mind to common life.
Her History of New England is evidence of her perseverance in this
purpose, as that work was undertaken soon after the second edition of
her ‘View of Religious Opinions.’
In her memoirs, she mentions her difficulty of procuring books that
would aid her in her purposes. The very uncommon faculty she possessed
of comprehending, and making her own, the information a book contained,
greatly assisted her labors. She was invited to pass a week or two at
the late President Adams’s, at Quincy, with the offer of his library
as an inducement to accept the invitation. He was much struck with
the rapidity with which she went through folios of the venerable
Fathers; and made some pleasant remarks in consequence, which induced
her to speak of their contents. He then found, that, while she had
been turning over leaf after leaf, she had been culling all that
could be useful in her labors. She possessed the power of application
to an uncommon degree, and was often so entirely engrossed in her
subject, as to be unconscious of the lapse of time. This abstraction
gave rise to many little anecdotes. It was said that she often spent
days at the Atheneum; and that the librarian, after some ineffectual
attempts to disengage her from her book, would lock the door, go home
to his dinner, and return again, and find her in the same spot; and
unconscious either of his absence, or that the dinner hour was past. A
friend repeated this account to her, and asked her if it was true. She
said in reply, ‘It is very much exaggerated, I don’t think it ever
happened more than once or twice.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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