Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Phillis Wheatley
-
Standard Name: Wheatley, Phillis
Despite her youth at the time she published most of her works, PW
is an interesting and original late eighteenth-century poetic voice. Her poems (dozens published in newspapers, as well as collected) and letters range through social feeling, classical allusion, the religious, and the political, with mostly veiled comments on her own peculiar status as a black African slave writing for free people. Her race, gender, and enslaved status give her a particular interest, but her literary achievement makes a solid part of that interest.
AS
evidently chose her friends at least partly for their literary interests, since they included three publishing women of a younger generation—Hannah More
, Anna Seward
, and (a closer friend than the first...
Friends, Associates
Mary Palmer
MP
was one of those whom Phillis Wheatley
, the black poet from Boston, recorded meeting during her visit to England in summer 1773.
At a time when scientists were keen to investigate human ethnic differences, AH
met and entertained first a group of Inuit who had agreed to travel to London with explorer George Cartwright
, then the...
Occupation
Alice Walker
She supplemented her Radcliffe Institute
writing fellowship (worth $5,000, awarded for a year and extended for a second year) by teaching at Wellesley College
.
White, Evelyn. Alice Walker. A Life. Norton, 2004.
218, 222, 225
There her course on black women writers...
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...
Textual Features
Mary Stockdale
Her poems dwell on suffering, with titles like The Sigh, Sorrow, and Absence. They celebrate her family and female friends;
Feminist Companion Archive.
when she enters a protest about the slave trade, she does so...
Textual Features
Mary Scott
In the dedication she mentions a few new publications that came to her attention too late to be discussed in the poem itself. These include works by Hester Chapone
, Hannah More
, and Phillis Wheatley
Textual Production
Mary Palmer
The enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley
, who met MP
during her visit from Boston to England, called her a poetess, and accomplished lady, but none of Palmer's poetry is known to survive.
His De la littérature des Nègres in its original form reflects internationalism, anglophilia, and perhaps even proto-feminism. The title-page quotes Mary Robinson
. The roll of honour of white activists for abolition and racial equality...
Textual Production
Mary Whateley Darwall
Her friends (including her future husband and father-in-law) collected 761 subscriptions.
Messenger, Ann. Woman and Poet in the Eighteenth Century: The Life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825). AMS Press, 1999.
42
Someone, perhaps Shenstone, took responsibility for improvements; these changes made Mary Whateley sound more formal and less original.
Messenger, Ann. Woman and Poet in the Eighteenth Century: The Life of Mary Whateley Darwall (1738-1825). AMS Press, 1999.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
69: 324-8; 70: 454
20 January 2021: Amanda Gorman, aged twenty-two, became the youngest inaugural poet in American history when she read her work, The Hill We Climb, at U.S. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s inauguration.
Writing climate item
20 January 2021
Amanda Gorman
, aged twenty-two, became the youngest inaugural poet in American history when she read her work, The Hill We Climb, at U.S. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
's inauguration.
Liu, Jennifer. “Meet 22-year-old Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history”. CNBC, 20 Jan. 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/meet-amanda-gorman-the-youngest-inaugural-poet-in-us-history.html.
Bruce, Delali. “Amanda Gorman: Inaugural Poet and a Voice for Our Time”. redefy, 8 Mar. 2021, https://www.redefy.org/stories/amanda-gorman-inaugural-poet-and-a-voice-for-our-time.
Radin, Sara. “The First Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman Wants You to Know Her Work Goes Beyond Words”. Observer, 9 Apr. 2019, https://observer.com/2019/04/amanda-gorman-youth-poet-laureate-future-projects-women-in-the-world-summit/.
Texts
Wheatley, Phillis. An Elegiac Poem, On the Death of that celebrated Divine, and eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and learned George Whitefield. Ezekiel Russell, 1770.
Wheatley, Phillis. An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of the great Divine, the Reverend and learned Dr. Samuel Cooper. Ezekiel Russell, 1784.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr, and Phillis Wheatley. “Foreword: In Her Own Write”. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley, edited by John C. Shields and John C. Shields, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. vii - xxii.
Wheatley, Phillis. Liberty and Peace. Warden and Russell, 1784.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr et al. “Phillis Wheatley’s Struggle for Freedom in her Poetry and Prose”. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley, edited by John C. Shields, Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 229-70.
Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. A. Bell, 1773.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr et al. “Preface”. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley, edited by John C. Shields, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. xxvii - xxxii.
Wheatley, Phillis, and Henry Louis, Jr Gates. The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley. Editor Shields, John C., Oxford University Press, 1988.