The essays included in Mary Hays’s ‘Female Biography’: Collective Biography as Enlightenment Feminism emerge from the authors’ collaboration in producing the first modern edition of Hays’s work in the Chawton House Library Edition (2013, 2014). This book explores Hays’s larger ambitions to lay the foundation for an encyclopaedic work by, for, and about women. The scholars’ contributions to this volume engage with some of the multiple problems and possibilities that Female Biography presented. Drawing on this effort, individual scholars examine Hays’s attempts to correct existing masculinist constructs which framed the ‘universe of knowledge’ then and persist in our time. Hays perceived that these had the cumulative effect of rendering women invisible. She responded to such absence by providing examples of the extent of female worth across Western society. Other contributions focus specifically on the subjects of Hays’s entries, looking at how she used source material and laid the groundwork for future biographical studies of women’s lives. Both Female Biography and Hays herself have continually presented difficulties in categorization: not quite Enlightenment, not quite Victorian either. This book recontextualizes her work, demonstrating the radicalism and originality of her feminism, even in its post-Wollstonecraftian phase, as well as the longevity of her influence. As such, it will be of interest to those conducting research into Hays, her subjects, and the evolution of life-writing by women. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women’s Writing.

Mary Hays worked alone in compiling the 302 entries that make up Female Biography (1803). By contrast, producing a modern, critical edition of the work relied on the expertise of 168 scholars across 18 countries. Essays in this collection focus on the exhaustive research, editorial challenges and innovative responses involved in this project.

The essays included in Mary Hays's 'Female Biography': Collective Biography as Enlightenment Feminism emerge from the authors' collaboration in producing the first modern edition of Hays's work in the Chawton House Library Edition (2013, 2014). This book explores Hays's larger ambitions to lay the foundation for an encyclopaedic work by, for, and about women. The scholars' contributions to this volume engage with some of the multiple problems and possibilities that Female Biography presented. Drawing on this effort, individual scholars examine Hays's attempts to correct existing masculinist constructs which framed the 'universe of knowledge' then and persist in our time. Hays perceived that these had the cumulative effect of rendering women invisible. She responded to such absence by providing examples of the extent of female worth across Western society. Other contributions focus specifically on the subjects of Hays's entries, looking at how she used source material and laid the groundwork for future biographical studies of women's lives. Both Female Biography and Hays herself have continually presented difficulties in categorization: not quite Enlightenment, not quite Victorian either. This book recontextualizes her work, demonstrating the radicalism and originality of her feminism, even in its post-Wollstonecraftian phase, as well as the longevity of her influence. As such, it will be of interest to those conducting research into Hays, her subjects, and the evolution of life-writing by women. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women's Writing.

Mary Hays worked alone in compiling the 302 entries that make up Female Biography (1803). By contrast, producing a modern, critical edition of the work relied on the expertise of 168 scholars across 18 countries. Essays in this collection focus on the exhaustive research, editorial challenges and innovative responses involved in this project.

Mary Hays, reformist, novelist, and innovative thinker, has been waiting two hundred years to be judged in a fair, scholarly, and comprehensive way. During her lifetime and long after, her role in the ongoing reformist debates in England at the end of the eighteenth century, intensified by the French Revolution, served as a lightening rod for opponents who attacked her controversial stance on women's intellectual competence and human rights. The author's intellectual history of Hays finally makes the case for her importance as an innovator. She was a feminist thinker who advanced notions of tolerance that included women, an educator who broke new ground for female autodidacts, a philosophical commentator who translated Enlightenment ideas for a burgeoning female audience, a Dissenting historiographer who reinvented 'female biography,' and a writer of deliberately experimental fiction, including the roman a clef Memoirs of Emma Courtney. The author approaches Hays from several disciplinary perspectives-historical, biographical, literary, critical, theological, and political-to elucidate the multiple ways in which Hays contributed and responded to, and influenced and was influenced by, the most significant issues and figures of her time.

Mary Hays was a radical feminist whose writings brought her to the attention of her contemporaries William Blake, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Her Female Biography is an ambitious and acclaimed work, covering the lives of 294 women.

Mary Hays was a radical feminist whose writings brought her to the attention of her contemporaries William Blake, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Her Female Biography is an ambitious and acclaimed work, covering the lives of 294 women.

Mary Hays was a radical feminist whose writings brought her to the attention of her contemporaries William Blake, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Her Female Biography is an ambitious and acclaimed work, covering the lives of 294 women. The volume will be of use to those interested in the history of feminism and eighteenth-century history.

Mary Hays was a radical feminist whose writings brought her to the attention of her contemporaries William Blake, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Her Female Biography is an ambitious and acclaimed work, covering the lives of 294 women.

This book is second volume of Mary Hays's Female Biography; a scholarly edition on the stories of real women's experiences, such as those of Elizabeth Bland and Boadecia. It attests to the existence of active, learned and powerful women who produced new knowledge and contributed to cultural capital.

This volume is a review of the autobiographical account Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803), Volume III, which sheds light on the controversial role of the female writers in the early nineteenth century.

This book is fifth of the six-volume modern scholarly edition on the stories of real women's experiences. Written by the autodidact Mary Hays, it attests to the existence of active, learned and powerful women who produced new knowledge and made genuine contributions to cultural capital.

This volume of Memoirs of Women Writers contains full texts reproduced in facsimile with new scholarly apparatus. The texts have been carefully selected to illustrate various themes in women's history. They include: Mary Hays, Female Biography; or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803).

This volume is a review of the autobiographical account Alicia LeFanu, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mrs. Frances Sheridan, which sheds light on the controversial role of the female writers in the early nineteenth century.

This book is about Mrs. Sarah Trimmer and her charitable work. It is a principal source of reference for the work she undertook as an author, philanthropist and pioneer in the promotion and institution of educational opportunities for impoverished children in the early nineteenth century.

This book is the second volume about Mrs. Sarah Trimmer and her charitable work. It contains selected content on her life and writings with original letters, her meditations and prayers for impoverished children in the early nineteenth century.

This book is about Mrs. Hannah More, who had acted as a controversial patron to Ann Yearsley, and had used her own reputation as a poet in support of the abolitionist cause. It is the collaborative effort of Roberts, Bickersteth and Seeley that testifies the complexity of her enduring influence.

This anthology of primarily non-fiction works by British women (1702-1870) introduces readers to a range of lesser-known texts and examines thei authors'? scholarly ambitions and often groundbreaking achievements.

Despite their lack of civil and political rights and in the absence of formal academic training, each of the writers profiled in this unique collection was anxious to establish herself as a serious contributor to what were regarded as male intellectual traditions. Students of women's history will be reacquainted with Harriet Martineau and Mary Hays' political writings while being introduced to Priscilla Wakefield, Jane Marcet, Ada Byron, and Mary Somerville's contributions to science and mathematics. Among others, Mary Shelley and Anna Jameson will intrigue readers with their innovative offerings to the expanding print culture.

A historical introduction and chronology provide the context for the primary sources which are arranged thematically. Biographical profiles and short commentaries are provided for each author.