Anna Letitia Barbauld

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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.
  • BirthName: Anna Letitia Aikin
    McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
    xliii
    She spelled her name both Laetitia and Letitia (when she did not confine herself to initials). Her biographer William McCarthy says he uses Letitia largely for its more appealing appearance.
    McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
    7n33

  • Nickname: Nancy
    Anne Thackeray (later Ritchie) notes that ALB seems to have been called Nancy when young, and assumed the additional, more dignified Laetitia on her marriage.
    Ritchie, Anne Thackeray. A Book of Sibyls: Mrs. Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Opie, Miss Austen. Smith, Elder, 1883.
    9, 13

  • Married: Barbauld
  • Pseudonyms: A Dissenter
    British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
    ; A Volunteer
    British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
    Library of Congress Online Catalog. http://catalog.loc.gov/.
    ; Bob Short
    British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

  • Indexed: Anna Aikin; Anna Barbauld
Coloured stipple engraving by John Chapman of Anna Letitia Barbauld, published in the Lady's Monthly Museum, 1 September 1798 (probably unauthorized and not from life). She is in profile, facing left, wearing a straw hat with pale pink ribbon, a white gauzy outer dress typical of the 1790's, and a dark cloak worn off her shoulders.

Milestones

20 June 1743

Anna Aikin (later ALB ) was born the elder of two children at The Old House (33 Main Street), Kibworth Harcourt, near Kibworth in Leicestershire.
It may be that her birth was on 9 June, and that the date was later translated into New Style.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
7n33
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
xliii
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
539

22 August 1781

ALB followed up the success of Lessons for Children with Hymns in Prose for Children, which Joseph Johnson entered in the Stationers' Register on this date.
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
xliv
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
193

12 February 1812

ALB published her longest poem, a controversial and important analysis of the current state of the nation, of recent history, politics, and war: Eighteen Hundred and Eleven.
As precedent for titling a poem about thestate of society from the year under discussion, she had Pope 's Epilogue to the Satires,originally published in 1738as two separate poems, each of whose titles began OneThousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight.Pope and Barbauld between them created theconcept which lies behind William Butler Yeats 's Nineteen Hundred andNineteen, different in tone as the later poemis.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
467
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
xlvi

December 1822

ALB sent the Monthly Repository two poems which were her last publications and probably her last literary writing. An address to the new year, 1823, looks forward; and Lines Written at the Close of the Year looks back.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
521-2

9 March 1825

ALB died at Stoke Newington of a general decline in health complicated by asthma.
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
xlvi
Rodgers, Betsy. Georgian Chronicle: Mrs Barbauld and her Family. Methuen, 1958.
152-3
Le Breton, Anna Letitia. Memoir of Mrs. Barbauld, including Letters and Notices of her Family and Friends. George Bell and Sons, 1974.
189

Biography

Birth and Influences

20 June 1743

Anna Aikin (later ALB ) was born the elder of two children at The Old House (33 Main Street), Kibworth Harcourt, near Kibworth in Leicestershire.
It may be that her birth was on 9 June, and that the date was later translated into New Style.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
7n33
McCarthy, William et al. “Introduction”. The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld, University of Georgia Press, 1994, p. xxi - xlvi.
xliii
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
539

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