Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Anna Seward
-
Standard Name: Seward, Anna
Birth Name: Anna Seward
Nickname: The Swan of Lichfield
Nickname: Nancy
AS
, living at a distance from London, was nevertheless a woman of letters, of the later eighteenth century and just beyond. She staked her claim to fame firstly on her poetry (though she was always willing to try genres unusual to her, like sermons and a biography of Erasmus Darwin
), secondly on her letters. In these and in her newspaper contributions she was also a literary critic, familiar with the criteria of both the Augustan and Romantic eras and gifted besides with an unfailing independence of judgement.
This contains autobiographical fragments and insightful comments on other women writers. Objects of AG
's comment include Susan Ferrier
, Charlotte Smith
(whose poems AG
felt to be easy, flowing, and correct, but low on...
Howe, Susanne. Geraldine Jewsbury: Her Life and Errors. George Allen and Unwin.
72
Beginning in...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Alice Meynell
Many of the essays reprinted here focus on women writers who were, to put it mildly, little known to the public in the 1940s. These included: Anna Seward
and Joanna Baillie
, as well as...
About the first twenty pages are occupied by MT
's early reminiscences, probably written not long after her first husband's death: she frankly recorded her emotional disturbance over that event.
Trench, Melesina. The Remains of the Late Mrs. Richard Trench. Editor Trench, Richard Chenevix, Parker and Bourn.
18
Later pages mix letters...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Sarah Pearson
The poem picked out by the Critical Review as the principal one, occupying fourteen pages, is entitled Lines found on the Stairs of the Tour de la Chapelle of the Bastile. These lines, powerful...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Jane West
JW
includes some juvenile work in this collection (a poem on Easter and another, written at her mother's request, beginning Thou sweet composer of earth-nurtur'd care, Sweet Poesy!
Feminist Companion Archive.
), and a piece reprinted from a...
Textual Production
Mary Bryan
The preface to the work writhes between expression and suppression. MB
alternately fears being blamed for vanity or presumption
Bryan, Mary, and Jonathan Wordsworth. Sonnets and Metrical Tales 1815. Woodstock Books.
viii
and hints at her ambition, citing Charlotte Smith
. She admires Smith for having succeeded...
Textual Production
Lady Eleanor Butler
LEB
and Sarah Ponsonby
wrote some of their voluminous correspondence jointly. Writing was one of their major pleasures; they selected paper with loving care, and kept an equally careful tally of replies received and of...
Textual Production
Anne Steele
AS
exchanged occasional poems over the span of her life with other women in her circle of correspondents: primarily her sister Mary Steele, later Wakeford
, whom she called Amira, but also her niece...
Textual Production
Ann Radcliffe
AR
was much upset when on the first, anonymous appearance of Joanna Baillie
's Plays on the Passions she was suspected of being the author: especially when she later learned that Anna Seward
, for...
Textual Production
Leah Sumbel
It is often said (for instance by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) that Topham's main aim in this venture was to boost her career. The World was known for featuring personal attacks on...
She ranges through much of literary history, paying attention to figures such as Anna Seward
and Mrs John Taylor
(mother of Sarah Austin
) as well as men like Charles Dickens
. Among her non-literary...
Textual Production
Margaret Holford
Having been writing verse from the age of eight, and publishing a volume of short poems in her thirties, Margaret Holford the younger included one piece of which she flags the date (when she was...
Timeline
1770: The Lichfield Circle began to develop at...
Building item
1770
The Lichfield Circle began to develop at Lichfield in Staffordshire; the group advocated reform of women's education away from time-filling accomplishments such as japanning and toward intellectual learning.
16 December 1773: Citizens dumped 340 chests of tea into the...
National or international item
16 December 1773
Citizens dumped 340 chests of tea into the harbour at Boston, Massachusetts, to protest duty imposed by the Tea Act of 10 May; this became known as the Boston Tea Party.
1782: George Romney painted a picture to illustrate...
1785: William Hayley published his Philosophical,...
Writing climate item
1785
William Hayley
published his Philosophical, Historical and Moral Essay on Old Maids; most women readers agreed with Anna Seward
that the book displayed witty, but ungenerous sport of fancy.
Seward, Anna. Letters of Anna Seward. Editor Constable, Archibald, Vol.
6 vols.
, A. Constable.
I: 147
April 1789: The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward's...
Women writers item
April 1789
The Gentleman's Magazine published Anna Seward
's selection of living celebrated Female Poets.
By June 1796: Samuel Taylor Coleridge compiled a booklet...
1801: Philip James de Loutherbourg painted Coalbrookdale...
Building item
1801
Philip James de Loutherbourg
painted Coalbrookdale by Night, a theatrically romantic picture of a famous industrial village: houses perched on the valley cliffs, with a clouded sky glaring red from furnaces.
December 1802: The Critical Review extolled the quality...
Women writers item
December 1802
The Critical Review extolled the quality of contemporary women's poetry: Miss Seward
, Mrs Barbauld
, Charlotte Smith
, will take their place among the English poets for centuries to come.
1804: The publisher George, George, and John Robinson,...
