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Anna Letitia Barbauld
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Standard Name: Barbauld, Anna Letitia
Birth Name: Anna Letitia Aikin
Nickname: Nancy
Married Name: Anna Letitia Barbauld
Pseudonym: A Dissenter
Pseudonym: A Volunteer
Pseudonym: Bob Short
Used Form: Mrs Barbauld
Used Form: Anna Laetitia Barbauld
ALB
, writing and publishing in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, was a true woman of letters, an important poet, revered as mouthpiece or laureate for Rational Dissent. Her ground-breaking work on literary, political, social, and other intellectual topics balances her still better-known pedagogical works and writings for the very young. During her lifetime an extraordinary revolution in public opinion made her vilified as markedly as she had been revered.
Connections
| Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Family and Intimate relationships | Elizabeth Heyrick | EH
's father, John Coltman
, had been taught by John Aikin
(father of Anna Letitia Barbauld
). He was an industrialist engaged in the manufacture of worsteds (material from which stockings were made), with... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Catharine Macaulay | The celebrations also included ringing the church bells and presenting CM
with a gold medal. One of the odes (published at Bath the same year) depicts her as triumphing over other, more conservative women writers:... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Harriet Martineau | HM
's father, Thomas Martineau
(1764 - 1826), had been educated at Palgrave School
by Rochemont
and Anna Letitia Barbauld
(to whose teaching Harriet ascribed his sound radical and Unitarian principles). He became a manufacturer... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Bessie Rayner Parkes | BRP
's great-grandfather, her mother's grandfather, was the famous Radical and Unitarian scientist Joseph Priestley
, sometimes referred to as the father of modern chemistry. Lowndes, Marie Belloc. I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia. Macmillan. 36 Markel, Michael H. Hilaire Belloc. Twayne. 1 |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Lucy Aikin | LA
was Anna Letitia Barbauld
's niece. She regarded the literary careers of her aunt and her father with great admiration. Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers. (1864) 1: 396 |
| Friends, Associates | Mary Wollstonecraft | Newington Green was a fortunate place for MW
to have settled: it was a centre of intellectual Dissent. There she met the radical minister Richard Price
, the poet Samuel Rogers
, and the teacher... |
| Friends, Associates | Lucy Aikin | In her memoirs LA
claims to have been acquainted with all the notable literary women of her time. She was a close friend of Joanna Baillie
and Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
. Another important friend and... |
| Friends, Associates | Mary Wollstonecraft | On her return to London MW
sought out the publisher Joseph Johnson
, of 72, St Paul's Churchyard, who became her patron, helper, and friend. He introduced her to Sarah Trimmer
, Anna Letitia Barbauld |
| Friends, Associates | Hannah More | Here she began to gather the circle of friends which by the end of her long life had touched every cranny of English society. She had already met Edmund Burke
in Bristol the previous September... |
| Friends, Associates | Jane Porter | The Porters' mother lived a busy social life on limited means, and JP
kept up this tradition. Sir Walter Scott
was an early friend. Mudge, Bradford Keyes, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 116. Gale Research. 265 |
| Friends, Associates | Mary Hays | After Wollstonecraft's death, and Fenwick's departure from England, it seems unlikely that MH
found female friends to replace them, though she knew well such people as Elizabeth Inchbald
, Anna Letitia Barbauld
, and Charles |
| Friends, Associates | Hannah More | Her later friendships often blended the personal with the political, like those with Beilby Porteus
(Bishop of London from 1787, where she met him) and the abolitionists William Wilberforce
(met at Bath the same year)... |
| Friends, Associates | Ann Radcliffe | While staying with her uncle Thomas Bentley at Chelsea, Ann Ward (later AR
) met a number of influential men, most of them with Dissenting connections: Joseph Banks
, George Fordyce
, Ralph Griffiths
,... |
| Friends, Associates | Hannah More | Among her nineteenth-century visitors were Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(brought by Joseph Cottle
the Bristol bookseller), Cottle, Joseph. Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Houlston and Stoneman. 54 |
| Friends, Associates | Amelia Opie | AO
's friendship with Anne
and Annabella Plumptre
(daughters of Robert Plumptre
, Prebend of Norwich, both of whom grew up to be writers) dated from their shared childhood. Plumptre, Anne. “Introduction”. Something New, edited by Deborah McLeod, Broadview, p. vii - xxix. xxvi, ix-x |
Timeline
1793: The liberal Dissenter Benjamin Flowers launched...
Writing climate item
1793
The liberal Dissenter Benjamin Flowers
launched a periodical, the Cambridge Intelligencer; it ran until December 1800.
After 1 February 1793: An organisation calling itself the Friends...
National or international item
After 1 February 1793
An organisation calling itself the Friends of Peace
began campaigning in tracts and pamphlets against the war with France (declared on this day).
February 1796: The Monthly Magazine: or British Register,...
Writing climate item
February 1796
The Monthly Magazine: or British Register, edited by Anna Letitia Barbauld
's brother John Aikin
, began publication.
By 22 July 1797: William Beckford published a second and more...
Women writers item
By 22 July 1797
William Beckford
published a second and more marked burlesque attack on women's writing: Azemia: A Descriptive and Sentimental Novel. Interspersed with Pieces of Poetry.
1801: The Quaker Joseph Lancaster opened his non-sectarian...
Building item
1801
The QuakerJoseph Lancaster
opened his non-sectarian Free School in Borough Road in south-east London; he soon had a thousand pupils.
December 1802: The Critical Review extolled the quality...
Women writers item
December 1802
The Critical Review extolled the quality of contemporary women's poetry: Miss Seward
, Mrs Barbauld
, Charlotte Smith
, will take their place among the English poets for centuries to come.
9 September 1803: The first number appeared of the Annual Review,...
Writing climate item
9 September 1803
The first number appeared of the Annual Review, a Dissenting periodical run by Lucy Aikin
's brother Arthur Aikin
, which had been planned in 1802.
January 1806: The Monthly Repository, a Dissenting magazine,...
Writing climate item
January 1806
The Monthly Repository, a Dissenting magazine, began publication in London, edited by Robert Aspland
.
January 1807-June 1809: John Aikin (Anna Letitia Barbauld's brother)...
Writing climate item
January 1807-June 1809
John Aikin
(Anna Letitia Barbauld
's brother) ran a Dissenting periodical, The Athenæum: A Magazine of Literary and Miscellaneous Information.
6 November 1817: Princess Charlotte died at 2.30 a.m. after...
National or international item
6 November 1817
Princess Charlotte
died at 2.30 a.m. after delivering a stillborn son. Poor clinical judgement was to blame; intense national mourning and controversy followed.
Early 1818: William Hazlitt opened On the Living Poets,...
Writing climate item
Early 1818
William Hazlitt
opened On the Living Poets, the last of his Lectures on the English Poets, with a statement on gender issues.
By January 1821: Ballantyne's Novelists Library began publication;...
Writing climate item
By January 1821
Ballantyne's Novelists Library began publication; it was completed in 1824.
1868: Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered...
Writing climate item
1868
Emily Taylor
(1795-18), who is remembered for books connected with her school-teaching career, published Memories of some Contemporary Poets, with Selections from their Writings, with a good representation of women among her subjects (from...
By Christmas 1869: Francis Galton, mathematician, scientist,...
Writing climate item
By Christmas 1869
Francis Galton
, mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,
Texts
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. The Religion of Nature. Printed for the Benefit of the Distressed Spital-Field Weavers, 1793.
Barbauld, Anna Letitia. The Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld. Editor Aikin, Lucy, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1825.