Mary Meigs: 4 books

The box closet was a real closet in the attic of the family house in Washington, D.C. in which Mary Meigs grew up. Letters and diaries were found there after her mother’s death in 1958, and when Meigs read them she decided that they were the material for a book. The result is a moving portrait of a family.

The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving' by Mary Meigs Atwater contains an account of the rise, development, eclipse, and modern revival of a national popular art. Together with information of interest and value to collectors, technical notes for the use of weavers, & a large collection of historic patterns.

Taking as her alter-ego Lily Briscoe – the painter in Woolf’s To the Lighthouse – Mary Meigs portrays herself, her family, and her friends in Lily Briscoe: A Self-Portrait, a book that is both autobiography and memoir. She describes the three major decisions of her life: “not to marry, to be an artist,” and to listen to her “own voices.”

This classic book contains an unusual collection of hand weaving drawings by one John Landes, who appears to have been a professional weaver of the Revolutionary period. This remarkable old pattern book would be an excellent addition to anyone's bookshelf with an interest in the subject.