Women's Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript Publication in England, 1550–1800

by Edited by George L. Justice , Nathan Tinker

• ISBN13: 9780521808569
• ISBN10: 0521808561
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Until recently it was widely believed that women in Renaissance and early modern England either did not write, or did not publish their work. It is now becoming clear that instead of using the emerging technology of print, many women writers circulated their works by hand. This study contributes to the discovery and re-evaluation of women writers by examining the writing and manuscript publication of key authors from 1550 to 1800, altering our understanding of the history of the book and early modern British literature.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Note on contributors	viii
Acknowledgments	x
Introduction	1	(16)
George L. Justice
The Countess of Pembroke's agency in print and scribal culture	17	(33)
Margaret P. Hannay
Circulating the Sidney-Pembroke Psalter	50	(23)
Debra Rienstra
Noel Kinnamon
Creating female authorship in the early seventeenth century: Ben Jonson and Lady Mary Wroth	73	(21)
Michael G. Brennan
Medium and meaning in the manuscripts of Anne, Lady Southwell	94	(27)
Victoria E. Burke
The posthumous publication of women's manuscripts and the history of authorship	121	(16)
Margaret J. M. Ezell
Jane Barker's Jacobite writings	137	(21)
Leigh A. Eicke
Elizabeth Singer Rowe's tactical use of print and manuscript	158	(24)
Kathryn R. King
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and her daughter: the changing use of manuscripts	182	(19)
Isobel Grundy
Suppression and censorship in late manuscript culture Frances Burney's unperformed The Witlings	201	(22)
George L. Justice
Bibliography	223	(17)
Index	240