An Introduction to the Natural History and Classification of Insects, in a Series of Familiar Letters. With illustrative engravings.

Priscilla Wakefield (1750-1821) was the great-granddaughter of the Quaker martyr Robert Barclay (author of An Apology for the True Christian Divinity), the mother of authors and philanthropists Edward Wakefield (1774-1853), and Daniel Wakefield (1776-1846), and the aunt of English prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. She herself founded a maternity hospital, a Female Benefit Club, and a Penny Bank for children, which developed into England’s first savings bank. She took to writing in the 1790s, when her husband’s business was floundering, producing 15 books by 1817. She distinguished herself as a science writer, publishing An Introduction to Botany (1796), an account of Linnaean botany in the form of letters between sisters, and the present work. Her introductory texts, along with those of other female writers like Janet Marcet, Maria Jacson, and Almira Lincoln Phelps, were instrumental in introducing science to a wider audience, and one which included women. Twelvemo. x, 192 pp. Twelve engraved color plates of insects, each with accompanying descriptive leaf. With index. Contemporary full tree sheep, with gilt flat spine Joints cracking, but sound. Some rubbing to board extremities. Tips exposed. Moderate offsetting to leaves opposite plates. Bookplate and 1820 ink signature to front paste down. A very good copy.…