A Year in Books/Day 80: An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers

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  • Title: An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers Revised and Expanded Edition
  • Editors: Paul Schlueter and June Schlueter
  • Year Published: First Edition/1988; This Edition/1998 (Rutgers University Press)
  • Year Purchased: Early 2000s
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: From Eliza Acton to E.H. Young, every British woman writer of note, ever, is discussed here; comes complete with important life dates. It’s a rich source for many little-known wordsmiths.
  • Motivation: I write a lot about female writers. I’ve seriously dedicated tens of thousands of words to the ladies who came before me. They remain a huge source of personal inspiration. I bought this book to use as a reference tool.
  • Times Read: Cover-to-cover/1; As reference tool/countless.
  • Random Excerpt/Page 57: “B. (Hester Biddle) published nothing after 1662, although she was still an active speaker. Records show that in 1664 she was seized, punched, and imprisoned at Bridewell. And the following year she was sent to Newgate Prison for speaking in the street. She also had three sons between 1663 and 1668. Few details of her later life remain, although in 1694, only two years before her death, she visited France in order to meet King Louis XIV and plead for peace.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

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