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.
Baillie
praised the language of Holford's hymns as beautiful if perhaps a little too oriental,and the thoughts just & elevated & appropriate to the awful situation for which they are intended.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
2: 601
Her...
Textual Production
Margaret Holford
It appears that by late August 1824 Holford had written a tragedy, as yet unperformed and unpublished, from which she wished Thomas Campbell
to make extracts for appearing in the New Monthly Magazine, of...
Textual Features
Margaret Holford
Joanna Baillie
was moved by these verses and judged them to be indeed an affectionate & touching lament for the Beautiful & brave. She liked particularly the sentiment that every stranger who looked on his...
She is not mentioned in Teresa Barnard
's biography of Seward.
After her eldest daughter became famous and developed a correspondence with Joanna Baillie
...
Friends, Associates
Margaret Holford
Foremost among the friends whom she evidently made through her writing was Joanna Baillie
, with whom she opened a correspondence in 1813 which began with reciprocal compliments, and whose books she energetically publicised. Years...
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
She was very disappointed when Scott never acknowledged this tribute. After Wallace appeared, Joanna Baillie
wrote to him reminding him of this lapse in manners and implicitly that it was his own fault that Wallace...
Publishing
Margaret Holford
The poem was reprinted by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
in 1810. In 1821 the author was making enquiries of Longman
through Joanna Baillie
as to how many copies remained of this edition and...
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
Walter Scott
never answered when Holford sent him a copy of Wallace for comment, and was apparently scathing about the poem in remarks made privately to Joanna Baillie.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
1: 328
Early the next year Baillie
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
The reception of this second long poem was far less favourable than that of Wallace. The Monthly Review denied it literary merit while granting it some potential literary-historical interest. The poem was, wrote the...
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
Joanna Baillie
, to whom the author sent the volume, liked it on the first reading, and still better on the second. She found the title poem truly beautiful, full of striking & pleasing, melancholy...
Dedications
Margaret Holford
She dated her dedication to Joanna Baillie
on 18 May from Hendon Place. Baillie had thanked her for the honour on the 15th. The novel was reviewed in August. French and German translations quickly...
Reception
Margaret Holford
Mary Russell Mitford
called this novel an attempt to portray the poet Byron
, recognisable through several anecdotes familiarly told about him, in very black and exaggerated colors. She maintained that Joanna Baillie
, as...
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
Baillie
read this translation aloud to her sister
, and found it a very interesting work, simple, clear & the characters forcibly & impartially drawn, easier to follow than a longer history. Even as non-Spanish-speakers...
Textual Production
Margaret Holford
After her marriage Margaret Hodson published through John Murray
in 1827 a volume of hymns designed especially for those facing death, written or else collected by herself. In September that year Joanna Baillie
thanked her...
Literary responses
Anna Mary Howitt
The earlier set of illustrations was warmly praised by Joanna Baillie
.
