Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Joanna Baillie
-
Standard Name: Baillie, Joanna
Birth Name: Joanna Baillie
Nickname: Jack
Self-constructed Name: Mrs Joanna Baillie
JB
is best known for her stylistically and thematically innovative drama, published from 1798 and through the first two decades of the nineteenth century. Her poetry is now also beginning to be appreciated and a scholarly edition of her letters is available in print and on line. She also published a poetry anthology. Whether regarded from the viewpoint of Scotland or that of London, she is one of the important writers of her generation.
An epilogue she wrote for Joanna Baillie
's tragedy De Montfort was spoken by Sarah Siddons
when the play opened at Drury Lane Theatre
, London, on 29 April 1800.
Foreman, Amanda. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. HarperCollins.
331
The duchess said...
Education
Elizabeth Gaskell
The school moved to Avonbank House in Stratford upon Avon, a Tudor mansion that had once belonged to a cousin of Shakespeare's, in May 1824. Here Elizabeth learned English, history, geography and music. Women...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fletcher
On her first visit to London, EF
met Joanna Baillie
(with whom her friendship endured for years) and Anna Letitia Barbauld
.
Fletcher, Eliza. Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher, of Edinburgh. Editor Mary, Lady Richardson, Printed at the offices of C. Thurman for private circulation.
71
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fletcher
Joanna Baillie
(a well qualified judge) thought few people have so many friends as EF
, and that they all warmly esteemed as well as loving her.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
2: 699
At first meeting, Fletcher did not...
Literary responses
Eliza Fletcher
She received letters of praise and congratulation on this publication from a number of distinguished pens. Anne Grant
wrote characteristically that they far exceeded my expectations. She had expected exalted moral feeling, purity of sentiment...
Health
Susan Ferrier
She also began to lose her eyesight in middle age. She mentioned this affliction in 1830, and Joanna Baillie
noted in June 1831 that she was in living in a darkened state because of her...
Literary responses
Susan Ferrier
Again SF
met with success on balance. The Athenæum, however, naming Miss Ferriar as author, stated that the success of Marriage, backed by the good-natured commendation of Sir Walter Scott
, induced the...
Friends, Associates
Catherine Fanshawe
CF
's friends included other highly literate middle-class women such as Mary Berry
and Anne Grant
in Edinburgh. (Her friendship with Grant was maintained entirely by correspondence—she and her sisters hoped to visit Edinburgh in...
Textual Production
Catherine Fanshawe
The letters that CF
sent to Anne Grant
are not extant, but Grant's side of the correspondence leaves no doubt that the two were in constant dialogue about new books they had read, and their...
Literary responses
Catherine Fanshawe
CF
's immediately posthumous reputation rested, like her writings themselves, on oral tradition. She had the admiration of William Cowper
and Walter Scott
, as well as Joanna Baillie
, Anne Grant
, and Mary Berry
Anthologization
Catherine Fanshawe
Joanna Baillie
included four poems by Catherine Fanshawe
, anonymously, in A Collection of Poems, Chiefly Manuscript, and from Living Authors, Edited for the Benefit of a Friend.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
1: 420
Literary responses
Catherine Fanshawe
Nearly twenty years after CF
died, Mary Russell Mitford
's Recollections of a Literary Life supplied the first public comment on her; the publication also included four poems by Fanshawe that had previously appeared in...
Travel
Catherine Fanshawe
On 23 August 1832, CF
and her sister(s) arrived at a Hampstead house next door to that of Joanna Baillie
, but this seems to have been just a visit.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
1: 222-3
Publishing
Olaudah Equiano
Equiano was already a well-known figure in the abolitionist movement in Britain when his book appeared. He had issued Proposals for his subscription in November 1788 (the same month that George III
fell ill, probably...
Friends, Associates
Maria Edgeworth
By now ME
was a celebrity, and could count on being introduced to the local literati when she travelled. On this visit to London she finally met Etiénne Dumont
, the utilitarian, with whom she...
