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.
HL
turned down a marriage proposal from William Godwin
, recent widower of Mary Wollstonecraft
.
Lee, Sophia. “Introduction”. The Recess, edited by April Alliston, University Press of Kentucky, p. ix - lii.
xxxiv
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...
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...
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
Mary Shelley
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
Amelia Opie
In London she met many artists, writers, and politically active reformists: as well as Godwin
, she met Elizabeth Inchbald
, Mary Wollstonecraft
(who impressed her deeply, and trusted her enough to confide her plans...
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...
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...