Frances Wright

06 September 1795 - 13 December 1852

Standard Name: Wright, Frances

Birth Name: Frances Wright

Married Name: Frances D'Arusmont

Pseudonym: An Englishwoman

Pseudonym: A Woman

FW was a writer in many genres: her œuvre includes a tragedy and a philosophical essay, but is dominated by political and feminist social critique, much of it taking the apparently ephemeral forms of lectures and letters. John Stuart Mill called her one of the most important women of her day

Eckhardt, Celia Morris. Fanny Wright. Harvard University Press.

(that is, the earlier nineteenth century). The fact that much of her career was pursued in the United States means that she is often critically considered in the context of American literature and culture.

Full profile

Connections

Connections Sort descending	Author name	Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships	Margaret Fuller	Her father, Timothy Fuller , was also a teacher, then a lawyer and politician. A graduate of Harvard University , he served in both the Massachusetts senate and house of representatives, and he became a...
Fictionalization	Frances Trollope	FT was one of the most popular authors of her day, and certainly one of its most controversial female authors, in many respects unrivalled in her experiments with female characterization and the range of social...
Friends, Associates	Frances Trollope	Her disillusionment with Nashoba further dampened FT 's original fascination with Fanny Wright 's unique sensibilities, a process already begun on the journey over from England. In a letter written the following year, FT
Friends, Associates	Frances Trollope	Further, while as a wealthy heiress the young Fanny had rejected all the extravagances and even the simple pleasures of an English moneyed lifestyle, FT found the reality of a sparse American existence difficult. She...
Friends, Associates	Frances Trollope	Though their friendship was short-lived, critic Susan Kissel remarks on the similarities between FT and Frances Wright : while they differed in their manners, sensibilities, politics, and approaches, both publicly denounced slavery, the mistreatment of...
Friends, Associates	Eliza Fletcher	Hamilton, herself a conservative, set about de-demonizing EF 's political reputation. She had good success in persuading her friends that Mrs Fletcher was not the ferocious Democrat she had been represented, and that she neither...
Friends, Associates	Anna Wheeler	She nevertheless became an important link between French and English socialists, a friend not only of Fourier, but also of Flora Tristan , Frances Wright , Desirée Veret , and Jeanne Victoire . Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Friends, Associates	Mary Shelley	Another important friend of MS was the radical Frances Wright , who corresponded with her from 1827, and also put her in touch with Robert Owen's son Robert Dale Owen . Shelley, Mary. “Introduction”. Lodore, edited by Lisa Vargo, Broadview, pp. 9-45. 44 Vargo, Lisa. “<span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Lodore</span> and the ’Novel of Society’”. Women’s Writing, Vol. 6 , No. 3, pp. 425-40. 431 The two...
Friends, Associates	Frances Trollope	While in France, FT also met the young Frances Wright , a controversial figure who later played a significant role in her life. Heineman, Helen. Mrs. Trollope: The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century. Ohio University Press. 30-2 Wright was known for abolitionist sentiments developed during her travels...
Leisure and Society	Frances Trollope	Though FT had been a popular person in the places where she had lived in England, she did not fare as well with the American elite. Heineman suggests that the combination of her highly visible...
politics	Lydia Maria Child	LMC 's feminist ideas, though foreshadowed in her adolescent encounter with Milton, were slow to develop. When Frances Wright visited Boston in summer 1829 and gave a public lecture about women's rights, Child not only...
politics	Caroline Frances Cornwallis	The Eclectic Magazine once described her brand of feminism as less flighty than that of Frances Wright and less senselessly radical than that of Harriet Martineau (thus revealing a somewhat odd opinion of those two...
politics	Frances Trollope	Mary Russell Mitford later recalled that FTused to be such a Radical that her house in London was a perfect emporium of escaped state criminals. I remember asking her at one of her parties...
Reception	Frances Trollope	FT 's years of literary success were marked by tragedy: she lost two of her children to consumption, and eventually lost a third. Nadel, Ira Bruce, and William E. Fredeman, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 21. Gale Research. 21: 324 Heineman, Helen. Mrs. Trollope: The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century. Ohio University Press. 135 However, her writing brought her into a supportive network...
Residence	Frances Trollope	Frances Eleanor writes of FT 's determination to fix the family's financial situation by eventually having all the Trollopes move to Cincinnati, where they planned to sell imported goods and perhaps establish a market...

Timeline

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Texts

Wright, Frances. A Course of Popular Lectures. Office of the Free Enquirer, 1829.

Wright, Frances. A Few Days in Athens. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822.

Wright, Frances. Altorf. M. Carey, 1819.

Wright, Frances, and Robert Dale Owen. An Address to the Industrious Classes. Office of the Free Enquirer, 1830.

Wright, Frances. Biography, Notes and Political Letters. C. N. Baldwin, 1830.

Wright, Frances. Life, Letters and Lectures, 1834/1844. Arno, 1972.

Wright, Frances, editor. The Free Enquirer. Office of the Free Enquirer.

Wright, Frances. Views of Society and Manners in America. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821.