Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jane Taylor
-
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
.
She was the only European at this settlement. In a letter she wrote of the girls entrusted to her by the governor: They are fine children, and will I trust be apt to learn....
Taylor, Isaac, editor. The Family Pen. Jackson, Walford and Hodder.
209
Intertextuality and Influence
Edna Lyall
Escreet observes that The Autobiography of a Slander is EL
's only book to have an unhappy ending.
Escreet, J. M. The Life of Edna Lyall. Longmans, Green and Co.
65
In fact, though, while the central characters are left dead and miserable respectively, Lyall hints at...
Intertextuality and Influence
Ann Martin Taylor
Although she scribbled verse (and satirical verse at that) from her teens, ATG had early in life a decisive feeling of antagonism towards authorship as such, probably attributable to her pungent dislike
Taylor, Isaac, editor. The Family Pen. Jackson, Walford and Hodder.
The young Ann
and Jane Taylor
, with several of their friends, formed the Umbelliferous Society (a name meaning many flowers on a stem), which met monthly to read out their own and others' writing.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
1: 117
Friends, Associates
Ann Taylor Gilbert
The Taylor family (including Ann
and Jane
) met the family of John Constable
the landscape painter.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
1: 126
Friends, Associates
Jean Ingelow
JI
had a small but distinguished circle of intimate friends. By 1863 she was a friend of Alfred Tennyson
and was also close to Dora Greenwell
. She admired and respected Robert Browning
(though she...
Family and Intimate relationships
Elizabeth Strutt
Jacob George Strutt and his siblings (a lively family of vegetarians) grew up in Colchester and were close friends of the Taylors, including the writers Jane Taylor
and the future Ann Taylor Gilbert
. He...
Family and Intimate relationships
Edward FitzGerald
After remaining single until he was approaching fifty, EFG
married Lucy Barton
, a woman of his own age who had been born and lived most of her life in Suffolk. Lucy had published...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ann Taylor Gilbert
The young Ann
and Jane Taylor
had a bad few months: their father
was desperately ill with rheumatic fever, and at the height of his illness their mother
suffered a nervous collapse.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
1: 65, 67
Family and Intimate relationships
Ann Taylor Gilbert
Ann's next sister, Jane
, shared in their earliest writings as well as their engraving work, and became a remarkable religious poet.
Family and Intimate relationships
Ann Taylor Gilbert
A month before her sister Jane
died of cancer, ATG
expected her to survive: she had previously called Jane's illness the Lord's doing,
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
2: 42
implying that it must therefore be good.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
2: 45
Education
Christina Rossetti
Christina and her siblings were educated by their mother
, in reading, writing, the Bible and rudimentary French. The boys were sent to school when they were seven, while the girls continued at home. Their...
Education
Frances Power Cobbe
FPC
received lessons from her nurse Martha Jones
and from her mother
. Her reading included Sarah Trimmer
's History of the Robins, Anna Barbauld
's Lessons for Children, and poetry by Jane Taylor
