Jane Taylor

23 September 1783 - 13 April 1824

Standard Name: Taylor, Jane

Birth Name: Jane Taylor

Nickname: Jenny

Pseudonym: Q. Q.

JT , a writer of poems for children when she was little more than a child herself, saw herself in adulthood as first and foremost a Christian writer, seeking to change the lives of her readers, adults as well as the young. Her poems and fictions are vividly inventive: she creates animal characters which comically mirror and illuminate human characteristics, as well as thumb-nail sketches of ordinary people whose moral and psychological quirks (not only failings) are vividly realised. Her skill in dialogue and scenes of everyday social interaction matches that in character-study. In a family where all were writers, her siblings recognised that she was the outstanding talent. In most generations since her death one or two serious critical voices have been heard in her praise, while the general or popular idea of her has been that of merely a pious writer for children.

The heading supplied for Sylvia Bowerbank 's fine entry on her in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is children's writer.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

In the recent re-evaluation of women's writing, JT has her champions, notably critic Stuart Curran .

Full profile

Connections

Connections Sort ascending	Author name	Excerpt
Theme or Topic Treated in Text	Doreen Wallace	DW does not write as a promoter. To her the Fens as a whole—including the Norfolk marsh-land—are dismally uninspiring from a scenic point of view. Wallace, Doreen. East Anglia. Batsford. 71 She has no romantic illusions about pastoral life:...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text	Elizabeth Pipe Wolferstan	Here she expounds her method of teaching her grandchildren [or step-grandchildren] through play, and features acute critical comment on female writers for children. In particular, she makes detailed, intelligent criticism of Maria Edgeworth 's children's...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text	Anne Katharine Elwood	Some of the British women writers discussed in the text remain well-known, but others have slipped into obscurity. Memoirs includes: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , Griselda Murray , Frances Seymour, Lady Hertford , Hester Lynch Piozzi
Textual Production	Kate Greenaway	Throughout the 1880s KG illustrated many little books by well-known authors. In 1883 she provided illustrations for Little Ann and Other Poems, a collection by the early nineteenth-century children's writers Ann (later Gilbert) and...
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	Jane and Ann Taylor , with Adelaide O'Keeffe and others, as Several Young Persons, published their phenomenally successful collection, Original Poems for Infant Minds. Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. 3d ser. 6 (1805): 333
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	Ann and Jane Taylor revised for publication Rural Scenes; or, A Peep into the Country, for Good Children, originally written by William Darton . Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. 3d ser. 6 (1805): 108 British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Textual Production	Adelaide O'Keeffe	Following her collaboration with Ann and Jane Taylor , AOK produced her own book of verse for children: Original Poems: Calculated to Improve the Mind of Youth, and Allure it to Virtue. OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	Darton and Harvey published City Scenes; or, A Peep into London, for Children, also written by William Darton and revised by Ann and Jane Taylor . It is often ascribed to the Taylors alone. OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Textual Production	Adelaide O'Keeffe	Ann and Jane Taylor were not entirely happy with the publishers' decision to include thirty-four poems by AOK (given with her Christian name) in their collection Original Poems for Infant Minds, published in 1804...
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	Ann and Jane Taylor 's Rhymes for the Nursery was published, as by the Authors of Original Poems. Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. 3d ser. 8 (1806): 440
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	The reading-book Limed Twigs, to Catch Young Birds, published as by the Authors of Original Poems, Rhymes for the Nursery, &c., &c., was another collaboration between Ann and Jane Taylor . Wild birds...
Textual Production	Ann Martin Taylor	AMT (mother of Ann and Jane Taylor ) published with her name Maternal Solicitude for a Daughter's Best Interests. Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. 4th ser. 5 (1814): 108
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	Jane and Ann Taylor clubbed with friends, Josiah Conder and others, to produce, anonymously, The Associate Minstrels. Armitage, Doris Mary. The Taylors of Ongar. W. Heffer and Sons. 171
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	Ann and Jane Taylor 's Hymns for Infant Minds was published as by the Authors of Original Poems. OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Textual Production	Ann Taylor Gilbert	ATG , her sister Jane , and perhaps their brother Isaac , anonymously provided the twelve poems making up a children's book called The Linnet's Life, illustrated by their father . OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Timeline

2 July 1798

The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or polite repository of amusement and instruction published its first number. Sometimes called The Ladies' Monthly Museum . . . it ran until the 1830s.

By Christmas 1869

Francis Galton , mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,

By 18 August 1888

Lucy Walford published Four Biographies from Blackwood's.

Texts

Darton, William et al. City Scenes. Darton and Harvey, 1806.

Taylor, Ann Martin, and Jane Taylor. Correspondence between a Mother and her Daughter at School. Taylor and Hessey, 1817.

Taylor, Jane. Display. Taylor and Hessey, and J. Conder, 1815.

Taylor, Jane. Essays in Rhyme. Taylor and Hessey, and Josiah Conder, 1816.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. Hymns for Infant Minds. Thomas Conder, 1810.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. Limed Twigs, to Catch Young Birds. Darton and Harvey, 1808.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor et al. Little Ann and Other Poems. George Routledge and Sons, 1883.

Taylor, Jane. Memoirs and Poetical Remains of the Late Jane Taylor. Editor Taylor, Isaac, B. J. Holdsworth, 1825.

Taylor, Jane et al. Original Poems for Infant Minds. Darton and Harvey, 1805.

Taylor, Jane, and Mrs E. Whitty. “Preface”. A Mother’s Journal during the Last Illness of her Daughter, S. Chisman, B. J. Holdsworth, 1820.

Taylor, Jane. Rachel. Taylor and Hessey, 1817.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. Rhymes for the Nursery. Darton and Harvey, 1806.

Darton, William et al. Rural Scenes. Darton and Harvey, 1805.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor et al. Signor Topsy-Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern; or, The World Turned Upside Down. Tabart, 1810.

Conder, Josiah et al. The Associate Minstrels. Thomas Conder, 1810.

Taylor, Jane. The Authoress. A Tale. Taylor and Hessey, 1819.

Taylor, Jane. “The Beggar Boy”. The Minor’s Pocket Book, Darton and Harvey.

Taylor, Jane. The Contributions of Q. Q. to a Periodical Work. B. J. Holdsworth, 1824.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor et al. The Linnet’s Life. G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1822.

Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. The Poetical Works of Ann and Jane Taylor. Ward, Lock, 1877.