Women, Authorship and Literary Culture, 1690 1740
Other books by Sarah Prescott WOMEN AND POETRY, 1660 1750
Women, Authorship and Literary Culture, 1690 1740 Sarah Prescott University of Wales Aberystwyth
Sarah Prescott 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-1-4039-0323-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-50864-8 ISBN 978-0-230-59708-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230597082 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Prescott, Sarah, 1968 Women, authorship, and literary culture, 1690 1740 / Sarah Prescott. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. English literature Women authors History and criticism. 2. Women and literature Great Britain History 18th century. 3. Women and literature Great Britain History 17th century. 4. English literature 18th century History and criticism. 5. Great Britain Intellectual life 18th century. 6. Great Britain Intellectual life 17th century. 7. Authorship Economic aspects Great Britain. 8. Women authors, English Economic conditions. 9. Authorship Social aspects Great Britain. 10. Women authors, English Social conditions. 11. Authorship Sex differences. I. Title. PR113.P74 2003 820.9 9287 09033 dc21 2002044815 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
I Idloes Roberts, gyda chariad a diolch
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Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements viii ix Introduction: Relocating Women s Literary History 1 Part I: Women and Authorship 1 Authorship for Women: Careers and Contexts 15 2 Negotiating Authorship: Women s Self-Representations 39 Part II: Authorship and Economics 3 Marketing the Woman Writer: Commercial Strategies 69 4 Making a Living: Booksellers, Patronage and Subscription 103 Part III: The Literary Career of Elizabeth Singer Rowe 5 Gender, Authorship and Whig Poetics 141 6 Provincial Networks, Dissenting Connections and Noble Friends 167 Notes 187 Bibliography 211 Index 225 vii
List of Figures 1. Frontispiece portrait of Eliza Haywood, from Secret Histories, Novels and Poems (1725). By permission of the British Library (shelfmark 1261.ee.8). 75 2. Frontispiece portrait of Elizabeth Singer Rowe, from The Miscellaneous Works in Prose and Verse (1739). By permission of the British Library (shelfmark 991.k.20.21). 88 viii
Acknowledgements Some material on Penelope Aubin in Chapters 1, 2 and 3 appeared as Penelope Aubin and The Doctrine of Morality: a Reassessment of the Pious Woman Novelist, Women s Writing, 1.1 (1994): 99 112. I am grateful to Triangle Journals for permission to use this. Part of Chapter 6 is a revised version of my Provincial Networks, Dissenting Connections, and Noble Friends: Elizabeth Singer Rowe and Female Authorship in Early Eighteenth-Century England, Eighteenth-Century Life, 25 (2001): 29 42. I am grateful to the editor for allowing me to reproduce that material. In the course of writing this book I have received enormous help from a variety of sources and individuals. My colleagues at Aberystwyth have supported me in many ways. The first debt of gratitude is to Diane Watt, whose support, guidance, intellect and friendship have proved invaluable throughout. I would also like especially to thank Claire Jowitt for her constant encouragement, and David Shuttleton for his invaluable comments on drafts of various chapters of this book. I have also benefited from the advice and support of Jane Aaron, Peter Barry, June Baxter, Damian Walford Davies, Helena Grice, Andrew Hadfield and Paulina Kewes. I thank Patricia Duncker for her optimism and belief in me. The Departmental Research Committee at Aberystwyth granted me study leave which enabled me to work on the book in earnest. I am grateful to the College Research Fund for financial assistance. The staff at The British Library, the Bodleian Library, and the National Library of Wales have all been especially helpful. I would also like to express my appreciation of the community of scholars working in the area of women s writing and eighteenth-century studies. Jane Spencer deserves special mention for her inspiring supervision while I was a doctoral student at the University of Exeter, and for her continuing friendship and interest in my work. Ros Ballaster, Brean Hammond, Jacqueline Pearson, Marie Mulvey Roberts, Valerie Rumbold, Ashley Tauchert and Janet Todd have all been generous with their time and expertise at different stages in the book s evolution. I owe many debts of gratitude to my family. Elizabeth Moon has, as ever, been a constant inspiration as well as a source of practical and emotional support. Cliff Moon and Jane Hudson have provided a ix
x Women, Authorship and Literary Culture, 1690 1740 steady supply of sound advice in moments of stress. Faye and Abbie have been a frequent source of delight. Mae fy nyled pennaf i m gŵr am ei gariad a i gefnogaeth, sy n golygu cymaint imi. Cyflwynaf y llyfr hwn iddo ef.