The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

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OR many years I have had a
vague, half-formed purpose to write
my biography for my children
and grandchildren. They have
urged it again and again, and
Shave volunteered their assistance
in its preparation. Their importunities have been
"seconded by others, life-long friends, who have grown
old with me, and who have offered to assist me with
reminiscences of my youth, memoranda of events that
occurred during our school life, and with packages of my
own letters, running through half a century, the oldest of
them dating back more than sixty years.
My father and mother during my girlhood religiously
preserved my weekly letters to them, which were always
packed with my experiences at the time, as these were what
they cared most to know. And my faithful husband, during our long life together, has almost prepared a biography
of me in his methodical collection, arrangement, and preservation of my letters and manuscripts, our experiences in the
ministry, and our editorial co-partnership; in his memories
(vii)