London: Albion Press, 1804. First edition. Contemporary quarter calf over drab boards, with gilt and morocco label to spine. Joints cracked but holding firmly; gentle shelfwear to boards. Armorial bookplate to front pastedown, else unmarked. Measuring 102 x 92mm and collating [10], 346: complete, including all 12 engraved portraits inserted as called for by the instructions to the binder.

A prolific author, Mary Pilkington drew on her firsthand experiences as an orphan and a governess to create her most important work. While the majority of her writing centered on fiction (she produced over 40 novels leading up to 1825), she was also deeply invested in the education of girls. Early works such as A Mirror for the Female Sex (1798) addressed the practicalities of education for parents and schoolmistresses as well as the girls themselves. This later work, pocket-sized and documenting the true-life contributions of hundreds of women, pushed even further. By providing the biographies of women -- royals, actresses, educators, activists, authors -- Pilkington provided historical role models for girls to look up to and be inspired by. "'Example moves where precept fails and sermons are less read than tales'...A Female Biography is an excellent subject, and likely to be perused by the youthful part of the community...I trust it will be an useful lesson," she writes in the Preface. These women had already broken ground, laying a foundation for future women's work. To that end, Pilkington makes a point not only of including women from antiquity, but contemporaries as well -- women such as Hannah More, Hester Piozzi, and Sarah Trimmer. (Item #4031)