first edition Original boards, uncut, rebacked in later tan calf with burgundy and green morocco labels.
1810 · London:
by Clarke, Mary Anne
London: Printed for the Author, 1810 First edition. Original boards, uncut, rebacked in later tan calf with burgundy and green morocco labels. . Two volumes, twelvemo. . Engraved portrait. Volume II lacks front free endpaper. Light offsetting at a couple of spots in Volume II from old acidic inserts (I4-5, X6-Y1, Z2-3). Nineteenth-century bookseller's label on front pastedown of Volume I. Still, a very good, large copy, with half-titles and ads present. Mary Anne Clarke (1776?-1852), whose background remains obscure, was the mistress of Frederick, Duke of York (1763–1827). She was accused by Colonel Gwyllum Lloyd Wardle of soliciting bribes from the military in exchange for preferments and commissions from the Duke. The case became a great Regency scandal and resulted in a flurry of pamphlets. In more recent times, it became the subject of a novel, Mary Anne (1954), written by Mrs. Clarke's great-granddaughter, Daphne du Maurier. According to the D.N.B., it was ghost-written by P. F. McCallum.
(Inventory #: 13819)