Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Wollstonecraft
-
Standard Name: Wollstonecraft, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Wollstonecraft
Married Name: Mary Godwin
Pseudonym: Mr Cresswick, Teacher of Elocution
Pseudonym: M.
Pseudonym: W.
MW
has a distinguished historical place as a feminist: as theorist, critic and reviewer, novelist, and especially as an activist for improving women's place in society. She also produced pedagogy or conduct writing, an anthology, translation, history, analysis of politics as well as gender politics, and a Romantic account of her travels in Scandinavia.
In May 1794 Thomas Holcroft was indicted for high treason and spent time in prison; but he was acquitted at his trial. During the nine years between the death of Fanny's mother and his next...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ann Batten Cristall
His father was very much against Joshua becoming an artist, so his mother sent him money and clothes on the sly to keep him financially afloat.
Roget, John Lewis. A History of the Old Water-Colour Society. Longmans, Green.
1: 185
At first he was very poor. Mary Wollstonecraft
Family and Intimate relationships
Amelia Opie
This was John Opie's second marriage; his first wife had deserted him and their marriage had been dissolved by act of parliament. The second marriage remained childless. John Opie had been enjoying professional success in...
Friends, Associates
Ann Batten Cristall
ABC
and her brother Joshua met Wollstonecraft
in about 1788, and Joshua coresponded with her. A few years later Wollstonecraft told Joshua she wished that Ann could obtain a little more strength of mind instead...
Friends, Associates
Robert Southey
Having early in his life admired writers like Mary Wollstonecraft
and Charlotte Smith
, he later numbered women writers such as Anna Eliza Bray
among his close friends.
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Inchbald
She was warm in her admiration for Godwin's Caleb Williams.
Manvell, Roger. Elizabeth Inchbald: England’s Principal Woman Dramatist and Independent Woman of Letters in 18th Century London. University Press of America.
95-7
Their friendship later became strained by her dislike or disapproval of Mary Wollstonecraft
, who was first Godwin's lover and then, briefly from...
Friends, Associates
Ann Radcliffe
While staying with her uncle Thomas Bentley at Chelsea, Ann Ward (later AR
) met a number of influential men, most of them with Dissenting connections: Joseph Banks
, George Fordyce
, Ralph Griffiths
,...
Friends, Associates
Anna Letitia Barbauld
Her close friends at this period included Mary
and Joseph Priestley
and a number of young women of her own age. She was particularly attracted by a pair of sisters who got themselves barred from...
Friends, Associates
Mary Hays
MH
first met Mary Wollstonecraft
at the home of Joseph Johnson
.
Hays, Mary. “Chronology and Introduction”. The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist, edited by Marilyn Brooks, Edwin Mellen, pp. xv - xx; 1.
xvi
Friends, Associates
Catharine Macaulay
Friends she acquired at about this time included her new husband's sister, Elizabeth Arnold
(who fought the slanders after CM
's death by testifying to her irreproachable conduct in traditional female roles, and her Christian...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fenwick
EF
fully shared in her husband's friendship with William Godwin
. She exchanged visits with him, sometimes with one or other of her children, from the time she first entertained him in November 1788. He...
One of MS
's close friends, Lady Mountcashel or Mrs Mason, had been a pupil of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft
, while Wollstonecraft was a governess. Lady Mountcashel began calling herself Mrs Mason (the...
Friends, Associates
Helen Maria Williams
In Paris HMW
frequented Mme Roland
's salon, and she and Stone
became close friends of Roland and her husband
. Those who visited HMW
early in her time in Paris included Mary Wollstonecraft
(who...
Friends, Associates
Samuel Johnson
Boswell's is Johnson's most famous friendship, but his women friends were immensely important to him. Carter and Lennox were joined by Hester Thrale
(though Johnson always reckoned her husband, Henry Thrale
, if anything the...