Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sir Walter Scott
-
Standard Name: Scott, Sir Walter
Birth Name: Walter Scott
Titled: Sir Walter Scott
Nickname: The Great Unknown
Used Form: author of Kenilworth
The remarkable career of Walter Scott
began with a period as a Romantic poet (the leading Romantic poet in terms of popularity) before he went on to achieve even greater popularity as a novelist, particularly for his historical fiction and Scottish national tales. His well-earned fame in both these genres of fiction has tended to create the impression that he originated them, whereas in fact women novelists had preceded him in each.
Benger, Elizabeth Ogilvy. Memoirs of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown.
1: 152-4
Smith, Elizabeth. Fragments, In Prose and Verse. Editor Bowdler, Henrietta Maria, Richard Cruttwell.
151
In Edinburgh in 1803...
Friends, Associates
Lady Louisa Stuart
LLS
was introduced as a young woman into the Bluestocking circle. Her friendship with the younger Louisa Clinton
produced some attractive letters and that with Frances, Lady Douglas
, produced a remarkable memoir. Lady Douglas's...
Friends, Associates
Mary Boyle
MB
noted in her reminiscences that she had been on terms of close and tender friendship with many great men.
Boyle, Mary. Mary Boyle. Her Book. Editor Boyle, Sir Courtenay Edmund, E. P. Dutton; John Murray.
xxiii
Her correspondence with some of them has since been published. She called G. P. R. James
Friends, Associates
Mary Bryan
MB
approached Sir Walter Scott
on 10 June 1818, seeking the furtherance of her literary career. The extant correspondence spans nine years. His side does not survive, and there is no evidence that they ever...
Friends, Associates
Susan Ferrier
SF
and her father
made a visit, which was her first, to Walter Scott
at Ashistiel (his estate near Selkirk), when he was an eminent poet but not yet a novelist. They had stormy...
Friends, Associates
Maria Edgeworth
ME
formed warm friendships with Scott
and his son-in-law J. G. Lockhart
.
Butler, Marilyn. Maria Edgeworth: A Literary Biography. Clarendon.
418-20
Friends, Associates
Felicia Skene
From her youth FS
was accustomed to mixing with distinguished people. Sir Walter Scott
, a friend of both of her parents, found her youthful company a relief when he was old and ill. In...
Friends, Associates
Lucy Aikin
LA
, dining with Walter Scott
, was pleased that though she herself went unnoticed, Scott devoted considerable attention to her aunt Barbauld
.
Aikin, Lucy. Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters. Editor Le Breton, Philip Hemery, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green.
98-9
Friends, Associates
Dorothea Primrose Campbell
DPC
corresponded with Walter Scott
, who offered moral and some material support.
Scott, Sir Walter. “Papers of Sir Walter Scott”. MSS 3278. 102, 3888.20, 3890. 89, 208, 261, National Library of Scotland.
Friends, Associates
Anna Maria Porter
The young Walter Scott
was a neighbour of the Porters in Edinburgh and a childhood friend to AMP
and Jane.
Mudge, Bradford Keyes, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 116. Gale Research.
265
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Todd, Janet, editor. Dictionary of British Women Writers. Routledge.
under Jane Porter
In London while Anna Maria was growing up, and even after...
MB
(now Bedingfield) sent an anguished appeal to Scott
for an actual gift of money—fifteen pounds—to enable her to see a London specialist about her sight.
Ragaz, Sharon. “Writing to Sir Walter: The Letters of Mary Bryan Bedingfield”. Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic Text, No. 7.