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The literary career of Anna Seward (1742-1809) had many frustrations. Erasmus Darwin once printed her poetry under his own name. Horace Walpole accused her of having 'no imagination'. And despite her evident talents, she was unable to find a patron willing to support a woman. Yet her letters reveal the breadth of her interests and the strength of her literary criticism. In addition to writing to newspapers and magazines, she counted many eminent figures among her correspondents, including James Boswell (who begged for a lock of her hair) and the young Walter Scott. This six-volume selection of her letters, edited by the publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827), first appeared in 1811. Volume 1 covers the period 1784-7. Showing the first signs of her long-lasting acrimony towards Samuel Johnson, whom she saw as a bully, it includes some of her anecdotes of him, alongside her own equally expert criticism.

The literary career of Anna Seward (1742-1809) had many frustrations. Erasmus Darwin once printed her poetry under his own name. Horace Walpole accused her of having 'no imagination'. And despite her evident talents, she was unable to find a patron willing to support a woman. Yet her letters reveal the breadth of her interests and the strength of her literary criticism. In addition to writing to newspapers and magazines, she counted many eminent figures among her correspondents, including James Boswell (who begged for a lock of her hair) and the young Walter Scott. This six-volume selection of her letters, edited by the publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827), first appeared in 1811. Volume 2 covers the years 1788-90. It incorporates some of her staunchest defences of the older poets, such as Milton and Gray, against the onslaught of the new criticism, but also opens a touching window into her personal life away from the literary world.

The literary career of Anna Seward (1742-1809) had many frustrations. Erasmus Darwin once printed her poetry under his own name. Horace Walpole accused her of having 'no imagination'. And despite her evident talents, she was unable to find a patron willing to support a woman. Yet her letters reveal the breadth of her interests and the strength of her literary criticism. In addition to writing to newspapers and magazines, she counted many eminent figures among her correspondents, including James Boswell (who begged for a lock of her hair) and the young Walter Scott. This six-volume selection of her letters, edited by the publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827), first appeared in 1811. Volume 3 covers the years 1791-4. Ranging from simple but meticulous acknowledgements of praise for her poetry through to her wary opinions of the recent French Revolution, her letters show an unwavering devotion to both her literary criticism and the people closest to her.

The literary career of Anna Seward (1742-1809) had many frustrations. Erasmus Darwin once printed her poetry under his own name. Horace Walpole accused her of having 'no imagination'. And despite her evident talents, she was unable to find a patron willing to support a woman. Yet her letters reveal the breadth of her interests and the strength of her literary criticism. In addition to writing to newspapers and magazines, she counted many eminent figures among her correspondents, including James Boswell (who begged for a lock of her hair) and the young Walter Scott. This six-volume selection of her letters, edited by the publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827), first appeared in 1811. Volume 4 covers the years 1794-7. Unfailingly pragmatic, Seward begins with a discussion of the French Revolution and the unlikelihood of a similar occurrence in England, and ends with a cheerful account of her efforts to regain her good health.

The literary career of Anna Seward (1742-1809) had many frustrations. Erasmus Darwin once printed her poetry under his own name. Horace Walpole accused her of having 'no imagination'. And despite her evident talents, she was unable to find a patron willing to support a woman. Yet her letters reveal the breadth of her interests and the strength of her literary criticism. In addition to writing to newspapers and magazines, she counted many eminent figures among her correspondents, including James Boswell (who begged for a lock of her hair) and the young Walter Scott. This six-volume selection of her letters, edited by the publisher Archibald Constable (1774-1827), first appeared in 1811. Full of Seward's characteristic good humour, Volume 5 covers the years 1797-1801. It features her reflections on slavery, the disinclination of the young toward a religious life, and the troubled state of Ireland, alongside frank accounts of the rheumatism that plagued her middle age.