Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
-
Standard Name: Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley
Birth Name: Mary Pierrepont
Styled: Lady Mary Pierrepont
Nickname: Flavia
Nickname: Sappho
Married Name: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Indexed Name: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Pseudonym: Strephon
Pseudonym: Clarinda
Pseudonym: A Turkey Merchant
LMWM
, eighteenth-century woman of letters, identified herself as a writer, a sister of the quill
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Editor Halsband, Robert, Clarendon Press.
3: 173
haunted by the daemon of poetry. She wrote poems, essays, letters (including the letters from Europe and Turkey which she later recast as a highly successful travel book), fiction (including adult fairy-tale, oriental tale, and full-length mock romance), satire, a diary, a play, a political periodical, and a history of her own times. Not all of these survive. Best known in her lifetime for her poetry, she is today still best known for her letters.
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Editor Halsband, Robert, Clarendon Press.
EG
refers to a number of texts that influenced her as a child. She learned to read by the age of three, taught by loving aunts, and remembered in particular Puss in Boots, Bluebeard...
Education
Helen Dunmore
While HD
was growing up she read a lot of Russian fiction and poetry.
McCrum, Robert. “The Siege is a novel for now”. The Observer.
McCrum, Robert. “The Siege is a novel for now”. The Observer.
The books that she read, she says, made me, as a person...
Education
George Gordon, sixth Baron Byron
Byron's voracious reading in childhood was probably fostered by an unhappy emotional life from which imaginative escape was welcome. His favourite books were then the Arabian Nights and travel books about the East, especially that...
Education
Jane Gardam
She was twelve when she overheard her English teacher telling her parents that she was clever, well ahead of the standard for her age. By this time she was attending Saltburn High School
for Girls...
Dedications
Emily Frederick Clark
EFC
published by subscription a volume of Poems: Consisting Principally of Ballads, dedicated to Lady Lonsdale
(eldest grand-daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
).
Clark, Emily Frederick. Poems: Consisting Principally of Ballads. F. C. and J. Rivington.
prelims
Dedications
L. E. L.
It was dedicated to Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley
, descendant of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
. A modern reprint appeared in 1992.
death
William Congreve
His hitherto discreet partner the young Duchess of Marlboroughmade herself conspicuous by her public mourning.
Harris, Frances. A Passion for Government: The life of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Clarendon.
276
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
wrote a poem to the memory of Congreve, who, she says, In pain could...
death
Henry Fielding
His cousin Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
wrote that HF
and Sir Richard Steele
were both so form'd for Happiness, it is a pity they were not Immortal.
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Editor Halsband, Robert, Clarendon Press.
3: 88
Birth
Henry Fielding
He was the elder brother of Sarah Fielding
, and second cousin of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
(their grandfathers were brothers).
Birth
Lady Louisa Stuart
At her christening, on 6 September 1757, Lady Mary Coke
stood proxy for Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
as godmother.
Stuart, Lady Louisa. Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart to Miss Louisa Clinton. Editor Home, Hon. James Archibald, D. Douglas.
1: 260
Anthologization
Martha Fowke
Five poems by MF
(as Mrs. Fowke) appeared in good poetic company (with Pope
, Prior
, Susanna Centlivre
, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
, and others) in Anthony Hammond
's A New Miscellany, published on 19 May 1720.