author - "Frances Ann Kemble"

A Few Years Ago I Received From A Friend To Whom They Had Been Addressed
A Collection Of My Own Letters, Written During A Period Of Forty Years,
And Amounting To Thousands--A History Of My Life.

The Passion For Universal History (_I.E._ Any And Every Body's Story)
Nowadays Seems To Render Any Thing In The Shape Of Personal
Recollections Good Enough To Be Printed And Read; And As The Public
Appetite For Gossip Appears To Be Insatiable, And Is Not Unlikely Some
Time Or Other To Be Gratified At My Expense, I Have Thought That My Own
Gossip About Myself May Be As Acceptable To It As Gossip About Me
Written By Another.