Elizabeth Inchbald

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EI was a diarist from her teens. Before and after her debut on as an actress on the London stage in 1780, she considered writing as a way to make a living. Before she had made any headway getting her first novel accepted, she became a prolific dramatist: she wrote or translated twenty-one plays (about half of them adaptations). Three major theatrical editing projects appeared under her name. In the early twenty-first century her reputation stands high both as novelist and dramatist.
Photograph of a painting of Elizabeth Inchbald by Thomas Lawrence, c. 1796. She is shown from the waist up, wearing a white cap atop light brown curls. Her dress is white, with a white collar, and the background is a rich brown. The bottom part of the picture is unfinished, only a few sketched lines on blank board.
"Elizabeth Inchbald" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Mrs_Joseph_Inchbald%2C_by_Thomas_Lawrence.jpg/909px-Mrs_Joseph_Inchbald%2C_by_Thomas_Lawrence.jpg. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. This work is in the public domain.

Milestones

15 October 1753
Elizabeth Simpson (later EI ) was born in Standingfield (now Stanningfield), near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
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1770
Elizabeth Simpson (later Inchbald) , aged about seventeen, began keeping a diary; she was to continue this practice all her life.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
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February 1777
EI began work on the novel which became A Simple Story.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
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1 August 1821
EI died at Kensington House, a London lay community of Roman Catholics.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
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Biography

Birth and Family

15 October 1753
Elizabeth Simpson (later EI ) was born in Standingfield (now Stanningfield), near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America, 1987.
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