author
Mary King Waddington
1833–1923
An American-born observer of French political and social life, she turned years spent in diplomatic circles into lively memoirs and letters. Her writing offers a close-up view of France in the late nineteenth century, seen with wit and a sharp eye for detail.
4 Audiobooks
Chateau and Country Life in France
by Mary King Waddington
Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883-1900
by Mary King Waddington
Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife: January-May, 1880; February-April, 1904
by Mary King Waddington
My First Years as a Frenchwoman, 1876-1879
by Mary King Waddington
About the author
Born in 1833, Mary King Waddington was an American writer who became closely connected with public life in France after marrying the statesman and diplomat William Henry Waddington. She is generally identified as Mary Alsop King Waddington, and her published work centers on the world she came to know through that marriage: politics, society, travel, and daily life in Europe.
She is best known for memoirs and letter collections including My First Years as a Frenchwoman, 1876–1879 and Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883–1900. These books draw on personal experience rather than fiction, which helps make them feel immediate and readable even now. They are especially valued for the way they record the atmosphere of the French Third Republic and the social side of diplomacy.
Waddington died in 1923. Her appeal for modern listeners and readers lies in her point of view: practical, observant, and often quietly amused by the world around her.