This set includes three books written by Mary Russell Mitford and four books about Mary Russell Mitford, all published between 1827 and 1872. The titles written by her are "Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets, and Other Poems" (1827), "Country Stories" (1837), and "Our Village, Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery" (1852), and the four books written about her include two volumes entitled "The Life of Mary Russell Mitford … Related in a Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends" (1870) and two titled "Letters of Mary Russell Mitford" (1872). Mary Russell Mitford (1787 - 1855) was an English author and dramatist. She was born in Hampshire and is best known for Our Village, a series of sketches of village scenes and vividly drawn characters based upon her life in Three Mile Cross near Reading in Berkshire. She was the only daughter of George Mitford (or Mitford), who trained as a doctor, and Mary Russell, a descendant of the aristocratic Russell family. She grew up near Jane Austen and was an acquaintance of hers when young. At ten years old, young Mary won a lottery ticket for her dad worth £20,000, but by the 1810's the family suffered financial difficulties. In the 1800's and 1810's they lived on large properties in Reading and then Grazeley, but after 1819, when the money was all gone, they lived on a small remnant of the doctor's lost fortune and the proceeds of his daughter's literary career. The strain of poverty took a toll on Mitford's work, for although her books sold at high prices, her income did not keep pace with her father's extravagances. In 1837, however, she received a civil list pension, and five years later, her father died. A subscription was raised to pay his debts, and the surplus increased Mary's income. In 1851 she moved from Three Mile Cross to a cottage in Swallowfield, three miles away, where she remained for the rest of her life. She died there on January 10, 1855, after being injured in a carriage accident the previous December. Her first publications were poems in the manner of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Walter Scott, and apparently she was not related to A. B. Mitford, but he had daughters who became noted authors in their own right. All the books have five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt lettering and gilt decorations, marbled covers, burnt orange endpapers with the Hoar armorial bookplate on the front paste-downs, and different publishers on the title pages - "Dramatic Scenes" was published by Geo. B. Whittaker in London, "Country Stories" was published by Saunders and Otley in London, "Our Village" was published by Henry G. Bohn in London, and the two volumes of Mitford's Life and the two with her letters were all published in London by Richard Bentley. Several of the books are first editions as well: "Dramatic Scenes", "Country Stories", "The Life of Mary Russell Mitford" and "Letters of Mary Russell Mitford". "Our Village" was published in five volumes between 1824 and 1832, so this version can't be a first edition because it was published in 1852, and "Country Stories" is a first edition, but later printing, because it is missing the two pages of ads at the rear that were present in the original first edition. "Dramatic Scenes" has one page of Contents and 392 pages of text, "Country Stories" has 326 pages of text, "Our Village" has an illustrated frontis with a protective tissue guard, a one-page Preface and two uncut pages of Contents, a few small vignette drawings interspersed through the pages and 536 pages of text. The two volumes of "The Life Of Mary Russell Mitford" were edited by the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange and have three pages of Contents and 339 pages of text in the second volume and three pages of Contents and 307 pages of text in the third volume - the group is missing Volume I - and Mitford's Letters were edited by Henry Chorley and have 303 pages of text in the first volume and 267 pages of text in the second. The books measure 7 3/8 x 5 1/8 in. wide, with tight bindings and rather clean pages. "Dramatic Scenes" has brown spots on the title page and the first few pages of the text, then there's clean sailing till the end, when there are pages with a few faint brown spots again. "Country Stories" has small brown spots on the title page and a few pages after that, and then the pages are clean till the end, with faint brown spots at the rear. "Our Village" has faint brown spots on the half title, offset on the tissue guard from the illustrated frontis, and the text and vignette drawings are clean, and the two volumes about Mitford's Life and the two with her letters also have clean pages, so five of the books have very clean pages and the other two have faint brown spots at the beginning and at the end of each book, and that's about it. There's light rubbing at the heel and crown and at the tips, and a couple of tips slightly turned in on "Country Stories", and even with the faint brown spots in the first two books, the spines and covers are bright, and an attractive set for Mary Russell Mitford fans. #64 #1543