Jane Taylor

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Standard Name: Taylor, Jane
Birth Name: Jane Taylor
Nickname: Jenny
Pseudonym: Q. Q.
JT , a writer of poems for children when she was little more than a child herself, saw herself in adulthood as first and foremost a Christian writer, seeking to change the lives of her readers, adults as well as the young. Her poems and fictions are vividly inventive: she creates animal characters which comically mirror and illuminate human characteristics, as well as thumb-nail sketches of ordinary people whose moral and psychological quirks (not only failings) are vividly realised. Her skill in dialogue and scenes of everyday social interaction matches that in character-study. In a family where all were writers, her siblings recognised that she was the outstanding talent. In most generations since her death one or two serious critical voices have been heard in her praise, while the general or popular idea of her has been that of merely a pious writer for children.
The heading supplied for Sylvia Bowerbank 's fine entry on her in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is children's writer.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
In the recent re-evaluation of women's writing, JT has her champions, notably critic Stuart Curran .

Connections

Connections Author name Sort descending Excerpt
Textual Features Mary Ann Cavendish Bradshaw
There follows a fighting critical Dissertation Respecting Patrons and Dedications, which covers the issues of male disrespect for female authors, the tyranny of critics, and over-insistence on moral instruction (with Hannah More 's Coelebs...
Education Frances Power Cobbe
FPC received lessons from her nurse Martha Jones and from her mother . Her reading included Sarah Trimmer 's History of the Robins, Anna Barbauld 's Lessons for Children, and poetry by Jane Taylor
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Katharine Elwood
Some of the British women writers discussed in the text remain well-known, but others have slipped into obscurity. Memoirs includes: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , Griselda Murray , Frances Seymour, Lady Hertford , Hester Lynch Piozzi
Family and Intimate relationships Edward FitzGerald
After remaining single until he was approaching fifty, EFG married Lucy Barton , a woman of his own age who had been born and lived most of her life in Suffolk. Lucy had published...
Education Mary Gawthorpe
One of the poems MG had to learn for recitation was Meddlesome Matty by Ann Taylor (later Gilbert) .
Gawthorpe, Mary. Up Hill to Holloway. Traversity Press.
47
(MG thought it was by the other sister, and later regretted that she never...
Textual Production Ann Taylor Gilbert
Ann and Jane Taylor 's Rhymes for the Nursery was published, as by the Authors of Original Poems.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
3d ser. 8 (1806): 440
Textual Production Ann Taylor Gilbert
The reading-book Limed Twigs, to Catch Young Birds, published as by the Authors of Original Poems, Rhymes for the Nursery, &c., &c., was another collaboration between Ann and Jane Taylor .
Wild birds...
Publishing Ann Taylor Gilbert
Ann and Jane Taylor 's satirical Signor Topsy-Turvy's Wonderful Magic Lantern; or, The World Turned Upside Down was published with their brother Isaac 's illustrations.
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.
Textual Production Ann Taylor Gilbert
Jane and Ann Taylor clubbed with friends, Josiah Conder and others, to produce, anonymously, The Associate Minstrels.
Armitage, Doris Mary. The Taylors of Ongar. W. Heffer and Sons.
171
Textual Production Ann Taylor Gilbert
Ann and Jane Taylor 's Hymns for Infant Minds was published as by the Authors of Original Poems.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Residence Ann Taylor Gilbert
Ann Taylor (later ATG ) and her sister Jane, still very young, left London with their parents for Lavenham in Suffolk.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
1: 18
Textual Production Ann Taylor Gilbert
ATG , her sister Jane , and perhaps their brother Isaac , anonymously provided the twelve poems making up a children's book called The Linnet's Life, illustrated by their father .
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Family and Intimate relationships Ann Taylor Gilbert
The young Ann and Jane Taylor had a bad few months: their father was desperately ill with rheumatic fever, and at the height of his illness their mother suffered a nervous collapse.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
1: 65, 67
Author summary Ann Taylor Gilbert
ATG , her next sister and two brothers, wrote and published seventy-three books. The first and most famous title appeared in 1804-5. Most of these works were collaboratively authored in various combinations. They were mainly...
Residence Ann Taylor Gilbert
Ann and Jane Taylor left their childhood home at Lavenham in Suffolk, to move with their family to Colchester in Essex, where their father became a dissenting minister.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor. Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert. Editor Gilbert, Josiah, H. S. King, http://U of A, HSS Ruth N .
1: 86
Armitage, Doris Mary. The Taylors of Ongar. W. Heffer and Sons.
34

Timeline

2 July 1798: The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or...

Writing climate item

2 July 1798

The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or polite repository of amusement and instruction published its first number. Sometimes called The Ladies' Monthly Museum . . . it ran until the 1830s.

By Christmas 1869: Francis Galton, mathematician, scientist,...

Writing climate item

By Christmas 1869

Francis Galton , mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,

By 18 August 1888: Lucy Walford published Four Biographies from...

Women writers item

By 18 August 1888

Lucy Walford published Four Biographies from Blackwood's.

Texts

Darton, William et al. City Scenes. Darton and Harvey, 1806.
Taylor, Ann Martin, and Jane Taylor. Correspondence between a Mother and her Daughter at School. Taylor and Hessey, 1817.
Taylor, Jane. Display. Taylor and Hessey, and J. Conder, 1815.
Taylor, Jane. Essays in Rhyme. Taylor and Hessey, and Josiah Conder, 1816.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. Hymns for Infant Minds. Thomas Conder, 1810.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. Limed Twigs, to Catch Young Birds. Darton and Harvey, 1808.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor et al. Little Ann and Other Poems. George Routledge and Sons, 1883.
Taylor, Jane. Memoirs and Poetical Remains of the Late Jane Taylor. Editor Taylor, Isaac, B. J. Holdsworth, 1825.
Taylor, Jane et al. Original Poems for Infant Minds. Darton and Harvey, 1805.
Taylor, Jane, and Mrs E. Whitty. “Preface”. A Mother’s Journal during the Last Illness of her Daughter, S. Chisman, B. J. Holdsworth, 1820.
Taylor, Jane. Rachel. Taylor and Hessey, 1817.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. Rhymes for the Nursery. Darton and Harvey, 1806.
Darton, William et al. Rural Scenes. Darton and Harvey, 1805.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor et al. Signor Topsy-Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern; or, The World Turned Upside Down. Tabart, 1810.
Conder, Josiah et al. The Associate Minstrels. Thomas Conder, 1810.
Taylor, Jane. The Authoress. A Tale. Taylor and Hessey, 1819.
Taylor, Jane. “The Beggar Boy”. The Minor’s Pocket Book, Darton and Harvey.
Taylor, Jane. The Contributions of Q. Q. to a Periodical Work. B. J. Holdsworth, 1824.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor et al. The Linnet’s Life. G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1822.
Gilbert, Ann Taylor, and Jane Taylor. The Poetical Works of Ann and Jane Taylor. Ward, Lock, 1877.