Maria Susanna Cooper

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MSC began as a writer of children's books which have not been identified. Between 1762 and 1775 she published four epistolary novels of a didactic and conservative cast (or five, if a radical revision is regarded as a separate text). Three of these, including the revision, make a triptych dealing with the roles of daughters, wives, and mothers. To these she added a published narrative poem, and her son posthumously issued another novel and a volume of tales (at least some reprinted from magazines).

Milestones

20 August 1737

Maria Susanna Bransby (later Cooper) was born at Shotesham in Norfolk (close to Norwich), the eldest daughter in her family.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

30 October 1762

MSC wrote to publisher James Dodsley about the anonymous appearance of her first book, the novel Letters Between Emilia and Harriet. Her letter is now lost, as is one written this year by her husband about her work.
Dodsley, Robert. The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley 1733-1764. Editor Tierney, James E., Cambridge University Press.
549

3 July 1807

MSC died at the house of Robert Bransby Cooper , her eldest son, Furney Hill at Dursley in Gloucestershire. She left him the responsibility of organising new editions of her works.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cooper, Bransby Blake. The Life of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart. John W. Parker.
1: 20

May 1813

Robert Bransby Cooper published another posthumous short novel or novella by his mother, MSC : The Wife, or Caroline Herbert, which he had revised in manuscript.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
3 (May 1813): 560
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
2: 703

Biography

Birth and Family

20 August 1737

Maria Susanna Bransby (later Cooper) was born at Shotesham in Norfolk (close to Norwich), the eldest daughter in her family.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.