Fanny Calderón de la Barca's renown rests upon a single book, Life in Mexico during a Residence of Two Years in That Country (1843). It is based on her experiences in Mexico when she accompanied her husband, Angel Calderón de la Barca, on his diplomatic mission from 1839 to 1842 as the first Spanish envoy after Mexico had won its independence from Spain in 1821. Guadalupe Appendini is one of many who consider it "el mejor libro que sobre Mexico haya escrito un extranjero" (the best book on Mexico written by a foreigner).

Born Frances Erskine Inglis on 23 December 1804 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Fanny was the fifth child of what was to be a family often children--six daughters and four sons. Her father, William Inglis, was a Writer to the Signet, a special branch of the legal profession in Scotland; her mother, Jane Stein, was an Erskine and consequently...