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
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 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
Friends, Associates Ann Batten Cristall
ABC may have met the poet George Dyer through her brother; Dyer visited at Joshua's London lodgings and had a platonic affection for Elizabeth Cristall, who was living with her brother around 1795.
Roget, John Lewis. A History of the Old Water-Colour Society. Longmans, Green.
1:190, 189
Publishing Ann Batten Cristall
Subscribers included Anna Letitia Barbauld and her brother , Ann Jebb , the future Amelia Opie , Anna Maria Porter , Mary Wollstonecraft and her sister, Mary Hays and her sister, a Mrs Spence who...
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...
politics Eliza Fenwick
Fenwick's initial hatred of slavery lapsed into tolerance, in a society where slavery was woven into the fabric of life. She began hiring slaves, according to established practice, from owners who kept them for that...
Literary responses Eliza Fenwick
Secresy had six reviews in 1795; EF wrote much later that they blamed the principles but commended the style & Imagination.
Paul, Lissa. Eliza Fenwick, Early Modern Feminist. University of Delaware Press.
71
The Critical Review was put off by the title but then moved to...
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 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...
Publishing Eliza Fenwick
EF 's letters to Mary Hays were edited (considerably revised, with significant passages omitted and some letters divided up) by Hays's great-great-niece Annie F. Wedd . These printed letters run from 22 October 1798 to...
Family and Intimate relationships Eliza Fenwick
EF wrote to Mary Hays that she had determined, if possible, to consider myself & children totally separated from [John Fenwick 's] good or bad fortunes.
Fenwick, Eliza, and Mary Hays. The Fate of the Fenwicks. Editor Wedd, Annie F., Methuen.
9
Occupation Eliza Fenwick
EF wrote to Mary Hays that she was ensconced as a governess with the Mocattas at 33 Wyck Street in Chiswick, a Jewish family who had been bankers in London for close to two...
Health Eliza Fenwick
EF described herself to Mary Hays as deaf, short-sighted, toothless, and overweight.
Fenwick, Eliza, and Mary Hays. The Fate of the Fenwicks. Editor Wedd, Annie F., Methuen.
232

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.