Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Sewell
-
Standard Name: Sewell, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Wright
Married Name: Mary Sewell
MS
wrote during the nineteenth century, predominantly in verse, often in ballad form, to instruct and improve children and members of the working classes. Her poems combine simplicity of language and structure with clear moral and religious instruction. Much of her work was first published in pamphlet or tract form and found wide distribution through middle-class philanthropic work with the poor.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908.
Sewell, Mary. Homely Ballads for the Working Man’s Fireside. Jarrold and Sons, 1858.
One of Sarah's sisters, Dorothy, married a man named Sewell, making Sarah a relation by marriage to the writers Mary Sewell
and Anna Sewell
.
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Sewell
Mary (Wright) Sewell
was a highly successful writer of didactic poetry and moral tales for children. Her sentimental ballad Mother's Last Words (1860), sold over one million copies. A follower of educators Richard Lovell Edgeworth
Friends, Associates
Sarah Stickney Ellis
Among her few writing friends were Mary Howitt
and her relations by marriage Mary
and Anna Sewell
. She greatly admired without personally knowing Elizabeth Fry
, and felt a personal connection to Charlotte Brontë
EM
was involved in many other subscription efforts, including those for Mary Leapor
in 1751, Anne Penny
in 1771, and Mary Sewell
(for a book which appeared in 1803, after her death).
Feminist Companion Archive.
Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
90n31
Instructor
Anna Sewell
For most of her childhood, AS
was educated at home by her mother, as the Sewell family could not afford formal training for either of the children. Mary Sewell
believed strongly in the Edgeworth
s'...
Textual Production
Elizabeth Cobbold
EC
read Anna Letitia Barbauld
's Eighteen Hundred and Eleven and said it was only the more dangerous on account of its poetical excellence.
Feminist Companion Archive.
She was a subscriber for Mary Sewell
in 1803. As well...
Textual Production
Anna Sewell
AS
kept a diary throughout her life, and also wrote one serious poem and several stories in verse that, according to scholar Lopa Prusty, combine humor and whimsicality with a darker sense of nature.
Khorana, Meena, and Judith Gero John, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 163. Gale Research, 1996.
262
Timeline
1823
John Jarrold
founded a press, with his wife and four sons, at 3 Cockney Lane, Norwich.