Incidents of My Life: Autobiographical Essays: v. 17 (Virginia Historical Society Documents) - Hardcover

Ruffin, Edmund; Allmendinger, David F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813912792 ISBN 13: 9780813912790

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 1990

Synopsis

Edmund Ruffin (794-1865) is remembered as an innovative American agriculturalist and pioneer in soil chemistry- and as an advocate of Southern secession.Here, published for the first time, are the two surviving volumes of Ruffin's manuscript memoirs, written in 1851 with additions in 1853 and 1855. Unlike Ruffin's diaries begun four years later, Incidents of My Life presents the public man, the Ruffin he wanted outsiders and posteriy to see. The volumes recount his career as a scientific farmer, his writing of An Essay on Calcareous Manures, his editing of the Farmers' Register, and the beginnings of his involvement in reform movements in the 1850s.His recollections were intended as a moral record for his heirs, focusing on himself as a good example. Also included are Ruffin's memoirs of his two daughters who died in 1855 and, as an appendix, his account of the death of his mentor, Thomas Cocke, which are useful sources for mid-nineteenth-century social history.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813912792
• ISBN 13: 9780813912790
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Allmendinger David F.