Her autobiographical memoir was published in 1832, preserving her own account of her life and career as a professional writer.
In 1832, shortly after her death, "A Memoir of Miss Hannah Adams, Written by Herself" was published, completing and compiling an autobiographical account Adams had been composing in her final years. The memoir detailed her impoverished childhood, her unconventional self-education, her struggles with unscrupulous publishers, and her eventual recognition as a professional author.
The memoir is a rare and valuable primary source: few American women of the eighteenth century left behind detailed first-person accounts of their intellectual and professional lives. It offers historians direct insight into the economic and social obstacles she faced as a woman attempting to earn a living through writing, including disputes over royalties and copyright with printers who took advantage of her lack of legal and financial standing.
The book's frontispiece portrait of Adams—later used and preserved by institutions such as the Library Company of Philadelphia—has become one of the most recognizable historical images of an early American woman of letters. The memoir remains a key source for modern scholars researching the history of women's authorship, publishing, and religious scholarship in early America.