Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Eliza Fenwick
-
Standard Name: Fenwick, Eliza
Birth Name: Eliza Jaco
Married Name: Eliza Fenwick
Pseudonym: A Woman
Pseudonym: E. F.
Pseudonym: the Rev. David Blair
EF
, now known (after long obscurity) for her single, remarkable surviving epistolary novel of the radical school of the 1790s, also wrote characterful children's books and extremely vivid letters which extend several decades into the nineteenth century. Her second adult novel never materialised.
TH
knew most of the English radicals of the day. For years before this he had been a particularly close friend of William Godwin
, who regarded him as a mentor. The two men saw...
Friends, Associates
Mary Lamb
ML
's friends (many of them made through Charles) included Eliza Fenwick
(whose husband
and Charles drank together), Henry Crabb Robinson
, and many more canonical members of the Romantic movement. Charles was close to...
Friends, Associates
Joanna Baillie
On 11 May 1812 Henry Crabb Robinson
recorded in his diary meeting JB
and other women writers on a visit to Miss Benjers (Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
). In his account of this pleasant evening...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Parsons
Evidence of friendship between these two novelists is interesting because Parsons was a model of respectability while association with Robinson could potentially damage another woman's reputation. At this date Robinson (who had only another five...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
Having already praised many contemporary women writers in print, EOB
was now able to meet them. The move to London was accomplished principally through the zealous friendship of Miss Sarah Wesley
, who had already...
Friends, Associates
Annabella Plumptre
On that November date Annabella made an attempt, by letter, to bring together their friend Amelia Alderson (later Opie)
with Mary Hays
. (Anne had already written to the same purpose in March, but not...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
The guests included Joanna Baillie
, Jane Porter
(both mentioned as celebrities) and Eliza Fenwick
.
Robinson, Henry Crabb. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence. Editor Sadler, Thomas, Macmillan.
The Porters' mother lived a busy social life on limited means, and JP
kept up this tradition. Sir Walter Scott
was an early friend.
Mudge, Bradford Keyes, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 116. Gale Research.
265
When she moved to London, JP
included among her friends...
Education
Elizabeth Grant
While the family resided in London, theatre-going provided another much-welcomed form of education and entertainment. EG
once attended a production of The Caravan, featuring John Kemble
, in which Carlo, the famous Newfoundland...
Education
Fanny Holcroft
FH
's upbringing was purposely and radically progressive. Eliza Fenwick
's intention of bringing her own children up without belief in God was shaken when she found herself disgusted & shocked at the blind, coarse...
Dedications
Mary Hays
It was published by Simpkin and Marshall
, dedicated to Eliza Fenwick
in these words: While the Atlantic rolls between us, allow me, dear friend, to gratify my feelings, by addressing to you this little...
Anthologization
Dorothy Wordsworth
DW
sent to Charles and Mary Lamb, by June 1804, some little scraps for a children's verse anthology which Eliza Fenwick
was compiling, which was published the Tabart
the next year as Songs for...