Mary Russell Mitford

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Standard Name: Mitford, Mary Russell
Birth Name: Mary Russell Mitford
MRM , poet, playwright, editor, letter-writer, memoirist, and—in just one work—novelist, is best known for her sketches of rural life, especially those in the successive volumes of Our Village (whose first appeared in 1824). Her greatest success came when, under the pressure of her father's inexhaustible capacity for running up debt, she turned from the respected genres of poetry and plays to work at something more popular and remunerative.
Painting of Mary Russell Mitford by John Lucas, c. 1853, based on another by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1824, which was disliked for its assertive look. Here an oval frame is painted in; Mitford wears a white ruffled cap around her face, a white collar pinned with a cameo, a grey gown and brown shawl.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Mary Ann Browne
Mary Ann Browne married (after some delay and difficulty, according to Mary Russell Mitford ) James Gray .
Archives of the Royal Literary Fund, 1790-1918.
Friends, Associates Mary Ann Browne
MAB had already met L. E. L. and Mary Russell Mitford .
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
She now met the Chorley family, Shelton Mackenzie of the Dublin University Magazine, and other figures in Liverpool literary society. She presumably...
Friends, Associates Amelia Opie
In 1813 she again met de Staël (who was visiting London) and introduced her to Elizabeth Inchbald . Others she met after her husband's death included Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Byron , and Sir Walter Scott
Friends, Associates Mary Howitt
In Nottingham MH met L. E. L. and perhaps Elizabeth Fry . She was visited by Mary and Dora Wordsworth (wife and daughter of the poet), and later she and her husband stayed with the...
Friends, Associates Caroline Bowles
Talk about the conflict at Greta Hall circulated through England's literary circles. Henry Crabb Robinson , Sarah Burney , Elizabeth Barrett Browning , and Mary Russell Mitford were all privy to this gossip.
Blain, Virginia. Caroline Bowles Southey, 1786-1854. Ashgate, 1998.
4
Friends, Associates Frances Arabella Rowden
Mitford introduced St Quintin and his wife to her life-story as a well-born, well-educated, and well-looking French emigrant, and a woman whom she thought French, good-natured, red-faced . . . much muffled up in shawls...
Friends, Associates Henrietta Euphemia Tindal
Friends with whom she maintained contact by correspondence included her neighbour Mary Russell Mitford , who commented to Elizabeth Barrett Browning that HET had been wrong in her theory about the authorship of Jane Eyre...
Friends, Associates Henry Peter Baron Brougham
Brougham had a number of friends among women writers. He was at primary school in Edinburgh with Susan Ferrier (who, however, declined to acknowledge him later, probably for political reasons). His political work brought him...
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett was introduced to Mary Russell Mitford , who became a lifelong friend, by her cousin John Kenyon ; she met Wordsworth the following day.
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton, 1990.
80-2
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press, 1984–2024, 14 vols. to date.
3: 320
Friends, Associates Harriet Martineau
HM 's social circle vastly expanded at this time until she knew virtually all the prominent people, particularly the political men, of her day. As she recorded in her Autobiography, however, she refused to...
Friends, Associates Barbara Hofland
BH retained at least one life-long friendship from her Sheffield or Attercliffe days: with the poet and novelist Sarah Pearson , who had been her neighbour there. Pearson's will charged Hofland with the task of...
Friends, Associates Anna Jane Vardill
While she lived in London AJV moved in culturally active circles. She later described the poet Eleanor Anne Porden (who lived not far away) as her dear friend, and was one of those who...
Friends, Associates Caroline Clive
CC remained a close friend of her early passion Catherine Gore .
qtd. in
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
She was also acquainted with Mary Russell Mitford , whom she described as priggy,
Clive, Caroline. Caroline Clive. Editor Clive, Mary, Bodley Head, 1949.
266
Elizabeth Barrett Browning ,
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
and Harriet Martineau
Friends, Associates Catherine Gore
CG was acquainted with a number of important literary figures. Before leaving London for the Continent she attended an assembly given by Rosina Bulwer-Lytton to which Disraeli , Lady Morgan , and Letitia Landon also...
Friends, Associates Frances Trollope
Frances's earliest friendships were forged with intelligent young women like herself, such as Marianne Gabell , a headmaster's daughter. She also socialized with older women, including Mrs George Mitford , the mother of Mary Russell Mitford

Timeline

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Texts

Mitford, Mary Russell. The Works of Mary Russell Mitford, Prose and Verse. James Crissy, 1841.
Mitford, Mary Russell. Watlington Hill. A. J. Valpy, 1812.