Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Samuel Johnson
-
Standard Name: Johnson, Samuel
Used Form: Dr 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 his prose fiction Rasselas), of the language (the Dictionary), and of the literary canon (his edition of Shakespeare
and the Lives of the English Poets) that literary history has often typecast him as hidebound and authoritarian. This idea has been facilitated by his ill-mannered conversational dominance in his late years and by the portrait of him drawn by the hero-worshipping Boswell
. In fact he was remarkable for his era in seeing literature as a career open to the talented without regard to gender. From his early-established friendships with Elizabeth Carter
and Charlotte Lennox
to his mentorship of Hester Thrale
, Frances Burney
, and (albeit less concentratedly) of Mary Wollstonecraft
and Henrietta Battier
, it was seldom that he crossed the path of a woman writer without friendly and relatively egalitarian encouragement.
JB
was one of a handful of women quoted as an authority in Johnson
's Dictionary, 1755. Kathryn King notes how rapidly, in face of images of the female poet as gentle and genteel...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Anne Barker
MAB
's discussion of schools leads her into an account of a visit made by the Norwegian missionary, Bishop Schreuder
, to a later Zulu chief, Cetshwayo
, taken from a blue-book or government report...
Friends, Associates
Lady Anne Barnard
Lady Anne lived much of her life in fashionable society, and her acquaintance was very wide. In Edinburgh in her early twenties she impressed and delighted Samuel Johnson
with an impromptu and complimentary bon mot...
Friends, Associates
Henrietta Battier
In London HB
met many leading figures in cultural and intellectual life. She visited and confided in Samuel Johnson
, and developed a warm admiration for him.
Battier, Henrietta. The Protected Fugitives. James Porter, http://Bodleian: 280 i 105.
She hoped to get a volume of her collected poems published while she was in London in 1784, and enlisted the aid of Samuel Johnson. Johnson
offered positive encouragement (assuring her he had often been...
Textual Production
Samuel Beckett
In late 1937 SB
was at work on a play about the relationship between Samuel Johnson
and Hester Thrale
,
Cohn, Ruby. Back to Beckett. Princeton University Press.
ix-x
which he intended to begin with her death (many years, therefore, after the relationship...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Samuel Beckett
As it stands it focusses less on Thrale than on Anna Williams
and the other women actually resident in Johnson
's household.
Textual Features
Isabella Beeton
This first chapter goes well beyond outlining the provision of characters or proper wages for different classes of servants, venturing advice on the art of conversation and social etiquette. IB
quotes Samuel Johnson
on men's...
Residence
Theodora Benson
The family lived in the historic Stowe House at Lichfield, Staffordshire, built in the mid-eighteenth century by Elizabeth Aston
, a friend of Samuel Johnson
.
“Stowe House”. Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).
Education
Matilda Betham-Edwards
Because of her mother's early death, MBE
, she said later, was largely self-educated, her teachers being plenty of the best books.
Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce.
Ann Arrow Kempe
was described by her daughter as shy and tender, with a love of music. L. E. L.
remembered her as a charming, kind woman who admired poetry and demonstrated a sincere affection...
Intertextuality and Influence
Anna Eliza Bray
From an early age, AEB
admired Samuel Johnson
's style and adopted elements of his writing methods for her own career, such as keeping a journal of progress.
Bray, Anna Eliza. “Introduction”. Autobiography of Anna Eliza Bray, edited by John A. Kempe, Chapman and Hall, pp. 1-36.
26
Friends, Associates
Frances Brooke
Before departing for Québec to join her husband
, FB
attended a farewell party with Samuel Johnson
and other literary friends.
McMullen, Lorraine. An Odd Attempt in a Woman: The Literary Life of Frances Brooke. University of British Columbia Press.
69
Friends, Associates
Frances Brooke
FB
's friendship with Woffington led to her meeting Peg's sister Polly
, who became her lifelong friend. Eight years older than Brooke, Polly Woffington was a close friend of Samuel Johnson
, Sir Joshua Reynolds
Friends, Associates
Frances Brooke
FB
knew Samuel Johnson
well by 1755, before the days of his greatest fame. According to family legend, she and her sister were the ladies whom he teased because they had noticed his omission of...
Timeline
27 June 1777: The clergyman William Dodd was executed for...
Building item
27 June 1777
The clergyman William Dodd
was executed for forgery despite the efforts of many distinguished people to win him a pardon.
15 January 1778: A Scottish court found in favour of Joseph...
Building item
15 January 1778
A Scottish court found in favour of Joseph Knight
, a slave of African origin who had been brought to Scotland and now sued for his liberty. In effect this abolished slavery in Scotland: a...
By September 1782: The Letters of the black Londoner Ignatius...
Writing climate item
By September 1782
The Letters of the black Londoner Ignatius Sancho
were published two years after the author's death.
7 November 1783: The last public hanging took place at Tyburn...
Building item
7 November 1783
The last public hanging took place at Tyburn in London (near where Marble Arch now stands), putting an end to the practice of parading the condemned through town en route to the scene of execution.
1 October 1785: The year after Johnson's death, Boswell published...
Writing climate item
1 October 1785
The year after Johnson
's death, Boswell
published The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
7 December 1789: Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John...
April 1791: The month before the appearance of his Life...
Writing climate item
April 1791
The month before the appearance of his Life of Samuel Johnson
, and as parliament debated the bill to abolish slavery, James Boswell
published a long poem entitled No Abolition of Slavery; or, The Universal...
16 May 1791: James Boswell published The Life of Samuel...
Writing climate item
16 May 1791
James Boswell
published The Life of Samuel Johnson, on the twenty-eighth anniversary of the day that he and Johnson first met.
March 1824-May 1829: Walter Savage Landor published Imaginary...
Writing climate item
March 1824-May 1829
Walter Savage Landor
published Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen.
February 1906: Publisher J. M. Dent launched Everyman's...