Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
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Mid-August 1960: The US space programme NASA launched the...
Building and people item
Mid-August 1960
The US space programme NASA
launched the pioneering communications satellite known as Echo 1. Working on the principle of a mirror, it reflected radio signals between two points on earth.
“Dispatches”. Guardian Weekly, 13 Aug. 2010, p. 33.
33
10 August 1866: Another Industrial Schools Act allowed the...
National or international item
10 August 1866
Another Industrial Schools Act allowed the removal of children from mothers twice convicted of crimes.
Zedner, Lucia. Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England. Clarendon, 1991, http://U of A HSS.
148
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
1860s: During this decade, annuals became associated...
Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Andrew Boyle, 1967.
Collins, Arthur Simons. The Profession of Letters: A Study of the Relation of Author to Patron, Publisher, and Public, 1780-1832. George Routledge and Sons, 1928.
Eliot, George, and Felicia Bonaparte. Middlemarch. Editor Carroll, David, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Brown, Susan I. “The Victorian Poetess”. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 180-02.
Renier, Anne. Friendship’s Offering: An Essay on the Annuals and Gift Books of the Nineteenth Century. Private Libraries Association, 1964, http://University of Toronto (Robarts).
Linley, Margaret. “A Centre That Would Not Hold: Annuals and Cultural Democracy”. Nineteenth-Century Media and the Construction of Identities, St Martin’s Press, 2000, pp. 54-74.
Some time in the 1850s: Hannah Crafts, a fugitive slave, wrote The...
Writer or writing item
Some time in the 1850s
Hannah Crafts
, a fugitive slave, wrote The Bondwoman's Narrative; possibly the first novel by a black woman, it reached publication in 2002.
Crafts, Hannah. “Introduction”. The Bondwoman’s Narrative, edited by Henry Louis, Jr Gates, Warner Books, 2002, p. ix - lxxv.
xii, xliv-xlv, lvi
Writer or writing
Author profile
Samuel Johnson
Arriving in eighteenth-century London as one more young literary hopeful from the provinces, SJ
achieved such a name for himself as an arbiter of poetry, of morality (through his Rambler and other periodical essays and...
26 December 1751: At Nantwich, Cheshire, Sarah Davies, a destitute...
Building and people item
26 December 1751
At Nantwich, Cheshire, Sarah Davies, a destitute single woman with a baby, was committed to the House of Correction
for an indefinite term.
Connors, Richard. “Poor women, the parish and the politics of poverty”. Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, edited by Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, Longman, 1997, pp. 126-47.
142
Easton, Fraser. “Cross-Dressing, Spectacle, and Plebeian Life: Towards a Reinterpretation”. Spectacle in the Eighteenth Century Conference, Saskatoon, SK, 19 Oct. 2001.
31 August 1806: Charles Lever, novelist and editor, was born...
Writer or writing item
31 August 1806
Charles Lever
, novelist and editor, was born at Dublin.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
21
1857: Ellen Ranyard's employment of Bible-Women...
Building and people item
1857
Ellen Ranyard
's employment of Bible-Women in charitable work was the first instance of paid social work.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
126
13 September 1890: William James published Principles of Psychology,...
Writer or writing item
13 September 1890
William James
published Principles of Psychology, a key text in its own discipline, whose chief importance for literature may have been its originating the term stream of consciousness.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
13 September 2012
1749: An appeal to raise funds to institute a Magdalen...
Building and people item
1749
An appeal to raise funds to institute a Magdalen Hospital
in London (for prostitutes wishing to reform) netted £5000 in a few months.
Perry, Ruth. “Good Girls and Fallen Women: Representations of Prostitutes in Eighteenth-Century Fiction”. Narrating Transgression: Representations of the Criminal in Early Modern England, edited by Rosamaria Loretelli and Roberto De Romanis, Peter Lang, 1999, pp. 91-101.
97
Writer or writing
Author profile
Margaret Oliphant
As the breadwinner for her constantly extending family, MO
was astonishingly productive. She published (sometimes by name, sometimes anonymously, often with no name but with allusion to her previous works) ninety-eight novels, and three times...
Anson, Peter F. The Call of the Cloister: Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion. Editor Campbell, A. W., Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1964.
397
22 October 1903: William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian,...
Eagle, Dorothy et al. The Oxford Literary Guide to Great Britain and Ireland. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1993.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
1844: Scottish physician Sir Patrick Manson, a...
Building and people item
1844
Scottish physician Sir Patrick Manson
, a tropical medicine specialist, first suggested that the mosquito might transmit malaria.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
313
February 1848: Tuscany was granted a constitution by its...
National or international item
February 1848
Tuscany was granted a constitution by its Grand Duke.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
273
3 September 1939: Britain and France officially declared war...
National or international item
3 September 1939
Britain and France officially declared war on Germany.
BBC Handbook: 1960. BBC, 1960, http://U of A HSS HE 8690 B86.
238
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
374
Mitchison, Naomi. Among You Taking Notes . . . The Wartime Diary of Naomi Mitchison 1939-1945. Editor Sheridan, Dorothy, Oxford University Press, 1986.
35-7
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
44-7, 54
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
Writing as Menzies Sutherland, Elizabeth Stone
published Political Women.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
1959: Olympia Press published the Black Diaries...
Writer or writing item
1959
Olympia Press
published the Black Diaries of Roger Casement
, Irish patriot executed by the British for his part in the Easter Rising of 1916.
Craig, Alec. The Banned Books of England and Other Countries. George Allen and Unwin, 1962.
114-15
Thomas, Donald. A Long Time Burning: The History of Literary Censorship in England. Frederick A. Praeger, 1969.
297
February 2008: Award-winning British author Zadie Smith...
Writer or writing item
February 2008
Award-winning British author Zadie Smith
stirred up controversy by accusing most literary prizes of being only nominally about literature.
Smith, Zadie. “Breaking news: Short story competition result 2008”. The Willesden Herald, 5 Feb. 2008.
Smith, Zadie. “Breaking news: Short story competition result 2008”. The Willesden Herald, 5 Feb. 2008.
Brooks, Richard. “Zadie Smith sinks teeth into book awards”. Times Online: Arts & Entertainment: Books, 10 Feb. 2008.
