Elizabeth Smith

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Standard Name: Smith, Elizabeth,, 1776 - 1806
Elizabeth Smith , a young woman of unusual intellectual gifts, aroused public interest by her early death, and by the abilities and especially the piety revealed in her posthumously published works. She was a scholar (particularly in the field of languages) rather than a writer, but her poems, letters, and reflections are worthy of interest as well as her fine translations from German and Hebrew. She was much exercised by the malign image of the learned lady, which seems to have made her uneasy about her talents and ambition, but her discussions of this issue proved empowering for many of her immediate (and publishing) successors.
Stipple engraving of Elizabeth Smith, 1776-1806, by R. M. Meadows from a drawing by John George Wood, published 1809. This head-and-shoulders, oval picture shows her wearing a simple, loose, high-waisted dress with a tall frilled collar. Her dark curly hair is pulled up and tied on top of her head. Below is printed in italic script: "This is a Drawing of the Author during her last Illness by J. G. Wood." National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Production Henrietta Maria Bowdler
HMB performed another labour of love in editing her friend Elizabeth Smith 's posthumous Fragments in Prose and Verse. With Some Account of Her Life and Character by H. M. Bowdler. This remarkable volume...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Henrietta Maria Bowdler
In this work HMB warns against improper choice of friends and the excesses of romantic friendship, even while she idealises true friendship. She praises the well-employed talents of Elizabeth Montagu , Elizabeth Smith , Hannah More
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Mary Ann Browne
This volume displays the melodramatic tendency of MAB 's early romantic writing, but also her serious commitment to the idea of a women's tradition in literature. The title poem features more than one Byronic hero...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Katharine Elwood
Some of the British women writers discussed in the text remain well-known, but others have slipped into obscurity. Memoirs includes: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , Griselda Murray , Frances Seymour, Lady Hertford , Hester Lynch Piozzi
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Grant
This contains autobiographical fragments and insightful comments on other women writers. Objects of AG 's comment include Susan Ferrier , Charlotte Smith (whose poems AG felt to be easy, flowing, and correct, but low on...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Mary Ann Kelty
Her first subject is Princess Charlotte . After that MAK includes Henrietta (Mrs James) Fordyce , whose life had been written by Isabella Kelly in 1823, and many writers (including Lady Jane Grey , Lady Rachel Russell
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Isabella Lickbarrow
Other kinds of poem in the volume include a ghost story and a fairy story, as well as dramatic monologues in the voices of a widow (who misses her husband's protecting hand) and of a...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Harriet Martineau
Her subjects in the first essay are Hannah More (especially her Practical Piety and An Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of Saint Paul) and Anna Letitia Barbauld , whom she regarded as...

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