Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Fanny Kemble
-
Standard Name: Kemble, Fanny
Birth Name: Frances Anne Kemble
Married Name: Frances Anne Butler
FK
was a prolific nineteenth-century writer best known for her journals, which covered her life in the theatre and her residence in the American south. Her first-hand documentation of the institution of slavery was particularly controversial. Apart from her journals she experimented with drama, poetry, and autobiography, and—late in life—wrote her very first and only novel.
FAR
came from the English middle class. She was an Anglican
in religion. Mary Russell Mitford
represents her as a young teacher taking a relaxed attitude to religious ideas in literary contexts (her students were...
Dedications
Anna Brownell Jameson
ABJ
published in two volumes Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical and Historical, later renamed Shakespeare
's Heroines; it was dedicated to Fanny Kemble
.
Johnston, Judith. Anna Jameson: Victorian, Feminist, Woman of Letters. Scolar Press.
237
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Education
Elizabeth Taylor
Her first school, where she went at the age of six, was a little private establishment called Leopold House, which gave a grounding in English and maths and team games.
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books.
12-13
When Betty was eleven...
Family and Intimate relationships
Adelaide Procter
AP
's mother, born Anne Skepper
, was a clever and observant woman, a frequent and influential hostess to the London literary elite. Frances Kemble
considered her notable for her pungent epigrams and brilliant sallies...
Family and Intimate relationships
Barbarina Brand, Baroness Dacre
Her brother the Rev. James Ogle
performed the ceremony.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
10880 (6 December 1819): 3
This late second marriage was apparently very happy. Tim Brand was a lawyer and in politics a strong Whig, who...
AK
's sister, Fanny
, had dazzling early success as an actress before going on to further fame as a writer, feminist, and activist against slavery in the USA.
Family and Intimate relationships
Maria Theresa Kemble
Fanny Kemble
, MTK
's elder daughter, was born on 27 November 1809.
Highfill, Philip H. et al. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press.
316
Fanny became well known as an actress, writer, and abolitionist.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Family and Intimate relationships
Jane Welsh Carlyle
As Thomas Carlyle's reputation grew, so did his popularity with women, including Fanny Kemble
, Geraldine Jewsbury, and Harriet Martineau.
Surtees, Virginia. Jane Welsh Carlyle. Michael Russell.
131
Clarke, Norma. Ambitious Heights. Routledge.
7
Carlyle, Jane Welsh. Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle. Editors Carlyle, Thomas and James Anthony Froude, Longmans, Green.
1: 67
A woman whom Carlyle himself particularly admired was the wealthy and...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ann Hatton
and aunt of the actress and writer Fanny Kemble
.
Friends, Associates
Caroline Norton
Before her marriage CN
had formed a friendship with the Irish poet Tom Moore
, once a crony of her famous grandfather; this friendship endured into her middle age. It was also as Richard Brinsley...
Friends, Associates
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
Her parents often hosted musical and cultural events that drew visitors from London's artistic circles. As a girl, MEC
would have seen Alfred Tennyson
, John Ruskin
, William Holman Hunt
, Fanny Kemble
...
Friends, Associates
Anna Brownell Jameson
ABJ
met Fanny Kemble
in 1828 and a friendship developed. Of this meeting Kemble later wrote: And so began a close and friendly intimacy, which lasted for many years, between myself and this very accomplished...
15 September 1830: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the...
National or international item
15 September 1830
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first large-scale passenger steam railway, was officially opened; public timetabled service began on 17 September.
1 April 1857: Herman Melville's last novel, The Confidence-Man:...
Writing climate item
1 April 1857
Herman Melville
's last novel, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, appeared.
20 March 1863: The executive of the Ladies' London Emancipation...