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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 | Author name Sort ascending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Occupation | Lucy Toulmin Smith | Manchester College (now Harris Manchester College
) had a long and distinguished history as a Dissenting institution (including spells at York and London) before it moved to Oxford in 1889 and into new buildings... |
| Education | Anna Sewell | For most of her childhood, AS
was educated at home by her mother, as the Sewell family could not afford formal training for either of the children. Mary Sewell
believed strongly in the Edgeworth
s'... |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | Anna Seward | AS
's correspondence often deals with literary matters as well as with social matters and personalities. She writes with astonishing freedom to Hester Piozzi
about the latter's travel book Observations and Reflections: not only... |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | Mary Scott | MS
brings her list up to date with significant women writers who have published since the appearance of The Feminead. Her information is not perfect—she credits Anna Williams
with some works actually written by... |
| Literary responses | Sarah Scott | Nevertheless the idea of the women's utopia became associated in the public mind with never marrying at all. Anna Letitia Barbauld
signed a comic defence of old maids as written from Milenium [sic] Hall... |
| Intertextuality and Influence | Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck | Anna Letitia Barbauld
encouraged her goal of publication, thereby incurring some of the disapproval. McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 495 |
| Textual Production | Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck | The full title of the main work was The Principles of Beauty as Manifested in Nature, Art, and Human Character, with a classification of deformities. The subsidiary works included in the volume were An... |
| Literary responses | Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck | Her life of striving and enquiry has been little noticed by posterity, even in the present recrudescence of interest in women writers in history. Just recently several academic articles have appeared, and on 28 May... |
| Friends, Associates | Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck | The first visit which Mary Anne Galton (later MAS
) made away from home was a month at Hampstead with Anna Letitia Barbauld
. Schimmelpenninck, Mary Anne. Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Editor Hankin, Christiana C., Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. 2: 7 |
| Education | Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck | Her home learning had begun well before this: a very early text in her life was Anna Letitia Barbauld
's Hymns in Prose for Children, which her mother used to read with her. Schimmelpenninck, Mary Anne. Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Editor Hankin, Christiana C., Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. 1: 5 |
| Textual Production | Susanna Haswell Rowson | The London edition, from William Lane's Minerva Press, appeared in probably late 1799 (without the author's preface). A scholarly edition by Joseph F. Bartolomeo
came out in 2009. Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press. 1: 799 Broadview Press. http://www.broadviewpress.com/. |
| Literary responses | Elizabeth Singer Rowe | In a later generation Anna Letitia Barbauld
followed Hertford and Carter in celebrating ESR
her in poetry. Such different figures as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
and Clara Reeve
endorsed her. She had a huge following... |
| Wealth and Poverty | Mary Robinson | In the early years of her marriage to Thomas, MRfrequently inquired into the extent of his finances, and he as often assured me that they were in every respect competent to his expenses. Robinson, Mary. Perdita: The Memoirs of Mary Robinson. Editor Levy, Moses Joseph, Peter Owen. 51 |
| Textual Production | Anne Thackeray Ritchie | ATR
's A Book of Sibyls considered the lives and works of Anna Letitia Barbauld
, Maria Edgeworth
, Amelia Opie
, and Jane Austen
. Callow, Steven D. “A Biographical Sketch of Lady Anne Thackeray Ritchie”. Virginia Woolf Quarterly, Vol. 2 , pp. 285-7. 289 |
| Textual Features | Anne Thackeray Ritchie | The title of the Blackstick Papers alludes to the character of the Fairy Blackstick from her father
's Rose and the Ring: she places her essays under the kindly tutelage Ritchie, Anne Thackeray. Blackstick Papers. Books for Libraries Press. 3-4 |
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.