author
Hannah Adams
1755–1831
An early American writer who helped make sense of religion and history for ordinary readers, she is often remembered as the first woman in the United States to support herself through writing. Her work stood out for trying to describe religious groups fairly, in their own terms.
1 Audiobook
A memoir of Miss Hannah Adams
by Hannah Adams, Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee
About the author
Born in Medfield, Massachusetts, in 1755, Hannah Adams grew up in a family that struggled financially despite her father's large book collection. She taught herself through reading and, with help from students who boarded in her home, learned enough to begin a literary career at a time when that path was especially unusual for a woman.
She became known for books on religion and early American history, including A View of Religions and later works that expanded her effort to compare beliefs across many traditions. Writers and historians have remembered her as a pioneer because she tried to present religious denominations as their followers understood them, rather than simply attacking views she disagreed with.
Adams spent most of her life in Massachusetts and died in Brookline in 1831. She is still recognized both as an important early historian of religion and as a trailblazer for women writers in the United States.