Two years after the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin brought Harriet Beecher Stowe widespread acclaim, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands was published in two volumes in 1854. This book, which was a memoir of her travels in England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, and The Rhine, includes 49 letters from Mrs. Stowe to her friends, as well as a journal from Stowe's brother, Reverend C. Beecher.

"The work is an admirable one, conceived in a wholesome spirit, written with a genial pen, and literally overflowing with brilliant flashes of poetry and humor."

"One of the principle charms of Mrs. Stowe's book is that it is genuine throughout-written in the first impulse of the moment, and for a circle of private friends, not for a censorious public."

'With her genius, humanizing instincts, and sound common sense, she is to America what Dickens is to England, and will, we doubt not, be equally industrious, philanthropic and sincere in all she does."

-from The New York Times, August 1, 1854