1187 results Occupation

Mavis Gallant

On her return to Montreal from New York in 1941, MG briefly worked as a social secretary and in real estate before working for the Canadian National Railways.
Grant, Judith Skelton. Mavis Gallant and Her Works. ECW, 1989.
2
She ultimately wanted to become a journalist, but was told during an interview for the weekly Montreal Standard that she did not have enough experience. To build her resumé, she accepted a job in the negative-cutting room at the National Film Board , a position which she hated as women were not particularly welcome or effectively trained.
Hancock, Geoff. “Mavis Gallant”. Canadian Writers at Work, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 79-126.
90
At twenty-one, in summer 1944, she returned to the Montreal Standard and was taken on for a three-month trial.
Wachtel, Eleanor. “‘From the Fifteenth District’ with author Mavis Gallant (2008 Encore)”. Writers & Company with Eleanor Wachtel.
Although she enjoyed the work, women were less valued than men there too and she wondered if some situations women had to accept would have been inflicted on men.
Gallant, Mavis. “‘The Life of the Writer’”. Margaret Laurence Lecture, Writers’ Trust of Canada, 1988.
She worked there as a journalist for six years, gaining respect for her writing and following her interests.
Gibson, Douglas. “Mavis Gallant”. Stories about Storytellers, ECW , 2014.
210

John Galsworthy

JG qualified as a lawyer, but did not practise, preferring a literary career instead.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Jane Gardam

In 1951 she took a job with the Red Cross , working as a travelling librarian visiting and servicing hospital libraries. She then moved into journalism, becoming a sub-editor on Weldon Ladies Journal in 1952, and assistant editor of Time and Tide from 1952 to 1954. During her Time and Tide years Veronica Wedgwood , under whom she worked, taught her to prune, to summarise, to edit. She stopped working when her first child was born, and began her serious career as a writer as soon as the youngest went to school. She is a member of PEN . In 2006 she served as short-story judge for the valuable Bridport Prize. (The poetry judge that year was Lavinia Greenlaw .)
British Council Film and Literature Department, in association with Book Trust. Contemporary Writers in the UK. http://www.contemporarywriters.com.
Miller, Lucasta. “Novel existence”. The Guardian, 30 July 2005.
Greenlaw, Lavinia. The Bridport Prize 2006: Poetry and Short Stories. Sansom and Company, 2006.

David Garrick

Stage Debut

Margaret Gatty

Parish Work, Scientific Work

Théophile Gautier

TG championed l'art pour l'art, or art for art's sake. A player in the Romantic movement during the 1830s, he published Histoire du Romantisme in 1874. His poetry influenced the Parnassian school of French poetry, and he also wrote extensively as both a journalist and a critic.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa, editors. The Encyclopedia of the Victorian World. Henry Holt and Company, 1996.

Susanna Wright

SW became widely known for her various activities. She not only took care of her family (and later the family of her brother James) but also raised silkworms on a large scale, and was regarded as an authority on their care and management. Her silkworms won a commerce and manufactures prize in Philadelphia, and Benjamin Franklin presented Queen Charlotte (wife of George III) with a court dress spun from SW 's homegrown silk.
James, Edward T. et al., editors. Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Harvard University Press, 1971, 3 vols.
She also provided medical care for her neighbours (since there was no doctor within reach), and acted as a scribe for illiterate settlers, as well as offering legal advice to Franklin.
Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes, editors. American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 1999, 24 vols.

William Wordsworth

WW was appointed Distributor of Stamps for Westmorland, a job with the Internal Revenue which involved collecting the tax payable on stamps for various official documents.
Moorman, Mary. William Wordsworth: A Biography. Clarendon Press, 1957–1965, 2 vols.
2: 244

Emma Jane Worboise

At some point EJW worked as a teacher or governess. Considering how well-known her books became, it is remarkable how little information is available about her life.
Jay, Elisabeth. The Religion of the Heart: Anglican Evangelicalism and the Nineteenth-Century Novel. Clarendon Press, 1979.
246
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Ellen Wood

By now an established and successful writer, EW became proprietor and editor (in succession to Isa Craig ) of The Argosy, a monthly periodical that showcased her work. She bought it from publisher Alexander Strahan .
Montgomery, Katherine F. “Ladies who Launch: the Argosy Magazine and Ellen Price Woods Perilous Voyages”. Womens Writing, Vol.
21
, No. 4, Nov. 2014, pp. 523-39.
525

A. Woodfin

She was, however, well enough qualified to run a little school, if we can believe a somewhat whimsical reference in a novel.

Elizabeth Pipe Wolferstan

EPW was or became, like her husband, an abolitionist. She undertook charitable work for clothing the poor, and taught at a Sunday school.
Wolferstan, Elizabeth Pipe. “Preface”. Agatha, edited by John Goss.
forthcoming

Jane Wiseman

A Mrs Wiseman who appeared on stage in London around 1700, playing the role of Roxolana in Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery 's The Tragedy of Mustapha, may have been the future playwright.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1973–1993.
16: 195
According to theatre historian Giles Jacob writing in 1723, this JW worked as a servant to William Wright (d. 1721), who held the legal post of Recorder of Oxford. The same authority said that after her marriage she and her husband set up a Tavern in Westminster.
Jacob, Giles. The Poetical Register. E. Curll, 1719–1720, 2 vols.
301

Jeanette Winterson

While attending Accrington College, JW worked as an ice-cream van driver, a make-up artist in a funeral parlour, and a domestic assistant in Calderstone's Mental Hospital .
Parker, Peter, editor. A Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers. Oxford University Press, 1996.

Romer Wilson

After the outbreak of World War One, RW became involved in the war effort. In the last years of the war, 1917-18, she took a civil service job. This may be the same thing as her selling potatoes for the Board of Agriculture (which is colourful enough to be mentioned in most of the sparse accounts of her life). In 1918 she also published her first novel.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Seymour-Smith, Martin, and Andrew C. Kimmens, editors. World Authors, 1900-1950. H. W. Wilson, 1996.
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Editors Bell, Anne Olivier and Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press, 1977–1984, 5 vols.
2: 116n3

Helen Maria Williams

HMW achieved early success as a poet. George Hardinge was trying in autumn 1786 to secure her a Court position similar to that of Frances Burney . He did not succeed in this attempt.
Kennedy, Deborah. Helen Maria Williams and the Age of Revolution. Bucknell University Press, 2002.
33-4

Roma White

RW was a journalist before she turned to writing fiction and other books.

Joan Whitrow

She found it easier as a widow to work at doing Good, visiting the Sick, and relieving the Poor.
qtd. in
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
188
Her epitaph praises her universal charity.
Cole, William. Twickenham Town in Middlesex.
174

Isabella Whitney

At the same time she was servicelesse:
Whitney, Isabella. A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy. Editor Students of Sara Jayne Steen, An Academic Edition, Montana State University, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 1995.
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apparently unemployed. (She had two younger sisters working in London at this date.)
Fehrenbach, Robert J. “Isabella Whitney, Sir Hugh Plat, Geoffrey Whitney, and Sister EldershaeEnglish Language Notes, Vol.
21
, No. 1, Sept. 1983, pp. 7-11.
9

Dorothy White

DW worked for her faith as a minister and preacher for the Society of Friends .

Anna Wheeler

AW sat on the executive of the Owenite Grand Moral Union of the Productive Classes .
Taylor, Barbara, b. 1950. Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth Century. Virago, 1984.
60

Agnes Wheeler

For part of that time she was employed as housekeeper to a gentry family.

Jane West

JW herself managed the dairy, an important part of the farm's output.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2025, 22 vols. plus supplements.
During her lifetime, in 1802, there was public debate in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine as to whether she worked in her own dairy and took her own produce to market, or whether she was too gentrified.
Lloyd, Pamela. “Some New Information on Jane West”. Notes and Queries, Vol.
31
, No. 4, Dec. 1984, pp. 469-70.
469

Susanna Wesley

With her husband away at the annual Anglican Convocation in London, SW conducted evening services at Epworth Rectory, now rebuilt after the fire.
Wesley, Susanna. “Introduction”. Susanna Wesley: The Complete Writings, edited by Charles, Jr Wallace, Oxford University Press, 1997.
xiii

Timberlake Wertenbaker

TW worked as a journalist in London, and also for a year in New York, where she was a writer for Time-Life Books .