Description
Book SynopsisThe autobiographical narrative of Anne, Lady Halkett. Born in the early 1620s, Anne, Lady Halkett (née Murray) grew up on the fringes of the English court during a period of increasing political tension. From 1644 to 1699, Halkett recorded her personal and political experiences in both England and Scotland in a series of manuscript meditations and an autobiographical narrative called
A True Account of My Life. Royalism, romance, and contemporary religious debates are central to Halkett’s vivid portrayal of her life as a single woman, wife, mother, and widow. Collectively, the materials edited here offer the opportunity to explore how Halkett’s meditational practice informed her life writing in the only version of her writings to date available in a fully modernized edition. The forty-four meditations in this volume redefine the importance of Halkett’s contribution to seventeenth-century life writing.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Illustrations
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
A TRUE ACCOUNT OF MY LIFE (1677–1678)
SELECTED MEDITATIONS
APPENDIX 1: Anne, Lady Halkett, “Letter to the Earl of Lauderdale” (ca. 1672)
APPENDIX 2: Anne, Lady Halkett, “Letter to Her Stepson, Sir Charles Halkett” (n.d.)
APPENDIX 3: Anne, Lady Halkett, “An Information of What Was Left Me by My Mother” (n.d.)
APPENDIX 4: Items from Simon Couper, The Life of the Lady Halket (1701)
1. “Experiences in Fyvie.”
2. “Books by the Lady Halket.”
3. Biblical References in the “Books by the Lady Halket.”
Bibliography
Index
