Village Life in America, 1852-1872: Including the Period of the American Civil War as Told in the Diary of a School-Girl

xv, 225 pp. Plus 6 pages of publisher's ads. Red boards. Gilt titles on spine and on front board. Top page ride gilt. Includes black & white photographs and illustrations throughout text. Gilt top page ridge. "The diary of Caroline Cowles Richards, who along with her sister Anna, was sent to the home of their mother's parents in Canandagua, New York following her death. There they were brought up in the simplicity and sweetness of a refined household, amid Puritan traditions. Whatever there was of gracious formality in the manners of aristocratic people of the period, came to them as their birthright, while the spirit of the truest democracy pervaded their home. Of this Diary it is not too much to say that it is a revelation of childhood in ideal conditions."