Amelia Opie

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AO , who was publishing at the end of the eighteenth century and during the earlier nineteenth century, is best known as a novelist, but was also a dramatist, poet, and short-story writer. The opinions expressed in her writings are often reactionary in gender terms, though she was brought up a Unitarian and later became a Quaker and an active Abolitionist.
  • BirthName: Amelia Alderson
  • Married: Opie
  • Pseudonym: N.
    AO published over this signature in The Cabinet.

  • Indexed: Amelia Alderson Opie
Photograph of a painting of Amelia Opie by her husband, John Opie, 1798. She is depicted from the waist up, against a background that is mainly dark with a landscape scene visible in the distance. She wears a simple white dress with a V-shaped neckline that is trimmed with white ruffles. Her brown hair is pulled back, with bangs, and a braid across the top, acting as a headband. She holds a straw hat wrapped in gauzy black fabric in her lap. National Portrait Gallery.

Milestones

12 November 1769

Amelia Alderson (later AO ) was born in Norwich, her parents' only child.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxvii

Early January 1805

AO published Adeline Mowbray; or, The Mother and Daughter, her best-known novel, in a print-run of 2,000 copies.
Its date has been variously reported, but the Longman archives, recording the costs of paper, printing, and advertising in December 1804, make this the most likely date.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxiii
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxiii
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.

May 1834

AO 's last major publication,Lays for the Dead, appeared, with a preface acknowledging that some might find the subject-matter monotonous.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. The Collected Poems of Amelia Alderson Opie, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. xxxvii - lxx.
liv-lv and nn 43, 44
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxix

By 27 August 1843

AO finished her careful revisions to The Father and Daughter and Adeline Mowbray for re-issue in the new edition printed in 1844 by W. Grove and Sons for Longman .
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxiv, xxxix

20 April 1850

AO sent off to the organizers of an anti-slavery bazaar, to be used anonymously, the latest of her poems which her editors have been able to date. It begins: Oh ye! who come this show to view.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. The Collected Poems of Amelia Alderson Opie, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. xxxvii - lxx.
lv

2 December 1853

AO died in Norwich, after only a few months of decline and failing memory.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxix
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Family

12 November 1769

Amelia Alderson (later AO ) was born in Norwich, her parents' only child.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
xxxvii

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