Mary Hays

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Standard Name: Hays, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Hays
Pseudonym: Eusebia
Pseudonym: M. H.
Pseudonym: A Woman
MH is one of the best-known among the group of radical feminists surrounding Mary Wollstonecraft; she is notable for arguing from emotion, even passion, as well as reason. She wrote two novels, poetry, and a number of polemical and biographical works.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Wealth and Poverty Eliza Fenwick
Mary Lamb 's mention, in a context of her own money troubles, of a recent, memorable visit from EF probably relates to this event. Nearly two years later, on 12 November 1807, Mary Hays sent...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Hamilton
Again EH takes the radicals as her target. The phrase modern philosophers was in common use: the Gentleman's Magazine had turned it on Mary Wollstonecraft in reviewing her first major political work. Yet Hamilton makes...
Textual Production Anna Letitia Barbauld
Here she followed just a few months behind Mary Hays , who had also published a riposte to Wakefield. Close behind the book came the re-issue by Joseph Johnson of a whole bunch of ALB
Textual Production Eliza Fenwick
EF 's personal letters, as represented by the survivors among them from every stage of her life, are still highly readable. She wrote to her son Orlando while he was away at school, and to...
Textual Production Anna Letitia Barbauld
The importance of politics in ALB 's journalism is shown by her declining an invitation from Maria Edgeworth in 1804 to associate herself with a journal written entirely by women, on the grounds that the...
Textual Production Mary Matilda Betham
She was working on this book as early as December 1798 (years before her move to London, when Charlotte Bedingfield wrote to say she was glad the work was progressing, and wished she had knowledge...
Textual Production Ann Batten Cristall
George Dyer suggested that ABC and Mary Hays should collaborate on a poetical novel.
Kelly, Gary. Women, Writing, and Revolution 1790-1827. Clarendon.
111
Textual Production Elizabeth Hamilton
This was published at Bath and London. EH did serious historical research for this book, reading all the Roman history she could find in English and even commissioning translations.
There was already women's work...
Textual Production Charlotte Smith
She felt she was not paid well enough for the production of the first two volumes.
Smith, Charlotte. The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith. Editor Stanton, Judith Phillips, Indiana University Press.
403-4
Volume three was written by Mary Hays . The work took the form of a series of letters...
Textual Production Eliza Fenwick
Charlotte Smith knew of this work-in-progress on 26 July 1800, when she told Mary Hays how she wished she could help EF with money or moral support. On 31 October 1801 Hays noted that Thomas Underwood
Textual Features Charlotte Smith
These letters include plenty to family and friends; most notable are those to her publishers, a whole series of them.
Fletcher, Loraine. Charlotte Smith: A Critical Biography. Macmillan.
207
Their editor, Judith Stanton , has pointed out their value in reflecting and commenting...
Textual Features Anna Wheeler
The Appeal begins with an Introductory Letter to Mrs. Wheeler in which William Thompson expresses his reasons for writing the Appeal: an attempt to arrange the expression of those feelings, sentiments, and reasonings, which...
Textual Features Mary Wollstonecraft
Among the whole range of MW 's letters, those in which she offered mentorship to Mary Hays exemplify her disregard for conventional politesse, her grasp on the issues surrounding female professional authorship, and her generosity...
Residence Eliza Fenwick
Accustomed to India, neither of the Honnors had any idea how European servants are accustomed to be treated; Mr Honnor was often an oppressive and tyrannical master, nay even niggardly to comforts towards them...
Reception Catharine Macaulay
Mary Hays devoted to CM one of the most significant entries in her Female Biography (published in late 1802), and the longest to be based on original research. Reviewers took note, and charged Hays with...

Timeline

By 22 May 1755: George Colman and Bonnell Thornton edited...

Women writers item

By 22 May 1755

George Colman and Bonnell Thornton edited and published an anthology entitled Poems by Eminent Ladies.

January 1781-December 1782: The Lady's Poetical Magazine, or Beauties...

Writing climate item

January 1781-December 1782

The Lady's Poetical Magazine, or Beauties of British Poetry appeared, published by James Harrison in four half-yearly numbers; it is arguable whether or not it kept the first number's promise of generous selections of work...

8 December 1786: The Times (not yet using its final and best-known...

Building item

8 December 1786

The Times (not yet using its final and best-known title) attributed the alleged rise in the number of prostitutes to the male takeover of traditionally female jobs (for example, milliner, dress-maker, stay-maker, and so on).

1791: Gilbert Wakefield published An Enquiry into...

Building item

1791

Gilbert Wakefield published An Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship, whose arguments were challenged in different ways by Anna Letitia Barbauld and Mary Hays .

2 July 1798: The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or...

Writing climate item

2 July 1798

The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or polite repository of amusement and instruction published its first number. Sometimes called The Ladies' Monthly Museum . . . it ran until the 1830s.

9 July 1798: George Canning, writing in the Anti-Jacobin,...

Women writers item

9 July 1798

George Canning , writing in the Anti-Jacobin, lambasted sensibility as a literary mode stemming from France, from Rousseau , and from diseased fancy, effeminacy, and self-obsession.

1803: The year after Mary Hays's Female Biography,...

Writing climate item

1803

The year after Mary Hays 's Female Biography, there appeared Eccentric Biography: or, Memoirs of Remarkable Female Characters, Ancient and Modern.

Texts

Hays, Mary. Appeal to the Men of Great Britain in Behalf of Women. J. Johnson; J. Bell, 1798.
Hays, Mary. “Chronology and Introduction”. The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist, edited by Marilyn Brooks, Edwin Mellen, 2004, pp. xv - xx; 1.
Hays, Mary. Cursory Remarks. Knott, 1791.
Hays, Mary. Family Annals; or, The Sisters. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1817.
Hays, Mary. Female Biography. Richard Phillips, 1803.
Hays, Mary. Harry Clinton: A Tale for Youth. J. Johnson, 1804.
Hays, Mary et al. “Introduction”. The Fate of the Fenwicks, edited by Annie F. Wedd, Methuen, 1927, p. ix - xvi.
Hays, Mary. “Introduction”. The Victim of Prejudice, edited by Eleanor Ty, Broadview, 1998, p. ix - xxxix.
Hays, Mary. Letters and Essays, Moral and Miscellaneous. T. Knott, 1793.
Hays, Mary. Memoirs of Emma Courtney. G. G. and J. Robinson, 1796.
Hays, Mary. Memoirs of Queens, Illustrious and Celebrated. T. and J. Allman, 1821.
Hays, Mary. The Brothers; or, Consequences. 1815.
Hays, Mary. The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist. Editor Brooks, Marilyn, Edwin Mellen, 2004.
Fenwick, Eliza, and Mary Hays. The Fate of the Fenwicks. Editor Wedd, Annie F., Methuen, 1927.
Smith, Charlotte, and Mary Hays. The History of England. Richard Phillips, 1806.
Hays, Mary, and John Eccles. The Love Letters of Mary Hays (1779-1780). Editor Wedd, Annie F., Methuen, 1925.
Hays, Mary. The Victim of Prejudice. J. Johnson, 1799.