Clemmer, Mary. Ten Years in Washington: or, Life and Scenes in the National Capital, as a Woman Sees Them; Including a Full and Authentic History of the Life and Death of President James A. Garfield; Illustrated with a Portrait of the Author on Steel, Portraits of President Garfield and his Wife, and Forty-Eight fine Engravings on Wood. Hartford, Conn.: The Hartford Publishing Company, 1882. Sold Only by Subscription. [9562]
Purple cloth, spine in gilt, "Mary Clemmer Ames" included on spine, 8 3/4 x 6 inches, joints fine, tight. Some shading to the front board, fine engraved portrait with tissue guard, 607 clean pp. Very good. Hardcover.
With the eye and nose of a reporter, Mary Clemmer Ames describes life in Washington, D. C., in the decade following the Civil War. She gained notoriety by attacking politics and politicians in an occupation dominated by men.
"...her book Ten Years in Washington, first published in 1874, is an engaging account of the notable buildings and agencies centered in the nation’s capital, and the people whose activities breathed life into them. Her descriptions of the many individuals, male and female, prominent and not, who set the social standards of the political class, or who did the everyday work of the federal bureaucracy, are intelligent, sympathetic, at times witty, and fully human portrayals...Ten Years in Washington covers a wide variety of topics. There is a historical treatment of the designation of ten square miles of land given by the states of Maryland and Virginia for the establishment of the District. Mrs. Clemmer goes into great descriptive detail about the Capitol building, 'the President’s House,' the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. The inner workings of the U.S. Treasury, the Post Office and the Patent Office and other agencies are a prime focus of her writing. The State Department, the Army, the Navy, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Interior Department all came into view...Mrs. Ames had something to say about every mistress of the White House, whether she was the President’s wife or daughter..." - National Park Service website.
Mary Clemmer Ames (1831-1884), b. Utica, NY; American journalist, author, and poet. When seventeen she was married to the Rev. Daniel Ames, from whom she was divorced in 1874. "Her early newspaper experience was gained on the Springfield, Massachusetts Republican, the New York Press (1865), and the Brooklyn Daily Union (1869–71)...In later life she moved to Washington, D.C., where her home was a literary and social centre, and [in]...1883 she married Edmund Hudson, editor of the Army and Navy Register. She became best known for her "Woman's Letter from Washington", contributed for many years to the New York City Independent. She wrote both poetry and prose, including novels. Her complete works were published at Boston (four volumes, 1885)." - wikipedia.