The Fenwick Letters Volume 1
A Transnational Feminist Life Reconstructed, Volume I: 1797-1821
Published on 31. May 2026
Book
Hardback
364 pages
978-1-64453-408-3 (ISBN)
Description
The first of a two-volume edition of The Fenwick Letters covers 1797 to 1821, a period that marked the initial phase of Eliza Fenwick's transnational odyssey, as she transformed from promising author to conservative schoolmistress and savvy businesswoman; from traveling in radical circles in London to establishing herself in colonial slave-dependent Bridgetown, Barbados; and from wife of radical journalist and author John Fenwick to single, working mother, trying to establish an independent life for herself and her children, Eliza Ann and Orlando. Eliza's letters are consistently riveting, filled with sharply drawn portraits of the people, places, environment, politics, industries, and culture of each community she lived in.
Reviews / Votes
"The extraordinary life of the protean Eliza Fenwick, novelist, children's writer, shopkeeper, school teacher, business woman, emigrant, mother and grandmother, is caught in these vivid candid letters written from the 1790s to the 1830s. They depict an agitated progress through agitated times: with family to support, the ever resilient Fenwick combats loss and poverty by modifying style and opinions to suit shifting times. A radical in the London of Godwin and Wollstonecraft, an ambivalent observer in slave-owning Barbados, and a conservative reactionary in colonial Canada, she charms, surprises, disturbs and appeals by turns within this rich, engrossing book." - Janet Todd, author of Living with Jane Austen and Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden (2021)Caribbean literary historians will welcome this meticulous reassembly and editing of Volume 1 of the letters written between Eliza Fenwick, her daughter Eliza Ann and her friend Mary Hays,1797 to 1821. This period covers the transformation of a promising British author and wife from her radical and progressive circle in the UK to that of a colonial governess, schoolteacher, and single mother determined to support her family despite a peripatetic life. [. . .] The letters from Barbados (1814-1821) are filled with excitement, tragedy (Orlando dies of yellow fever) and danger (Bussa's slave rebellion in 1816 and the hurricane of 1819)." - Evelyn O'Callaghan, author of Women Writing the West Indies 1804-1939: 'A Hot Place, Belonging to Us' (2004)
The eloquent letters of Eliza Fenwick, a talented author and teacher in the circle of Godwin, voice her struggle to secure independence for herself and her two children from her indebted alcoholic husband. [. . .] Here, Paul's extensive introductory comments and notes make allusions in the Fenwick family letters accessible to the general reader, while highlighting passages of special interest to students of Romantic literature and politics" - Margaret Higonnet, author of Nineteenth-Century British Women Poets (1996)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Laminated cover
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64453-408-3 (9781644534083)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Eliza Fenwick (1767-1840) was a writer 1790s London, a member of Mary Wollstonecraft's circle. When her marriage crumbled, she became a prolific author of children's literature to support her family, and after moving to Barbados, she established a school for girls, and went on to open and teach at similar schools as she moved to various cities across the Northeastern United States and Canada.
Lissa Paul, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. The Children's Book Business (2011) and a biography, Eliza Fenwick: Early Modern Feminist (University of Delaware Press, 2019), constitute her previous two books on Fenwick. Paul was also an Associate General Editor of The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature (2005) and a co-editor of Keywords for Children's Literature (2011, 2021).
Adrienne Kitchin is a writer and educator focusing on women's health and education. She is a PhD candidate in Social, Cultural, and Political contexts of Education at Brock University. Adrienne combines her background in medical anthropology and her doctoral research in educational studies to locate-and to produce-counternarratives to long existing tropes regarding how women's pain is perceived in medical contexts. She uses new materialisms and counterhumanist anticolonialisms in her quest to close the gap in health disparities for women in their diverse intersectionality. Adrienne's research is dedicated to all those who have fallen through the cracks.
Jennifer Slagus is a neurodivergent assistant professor, social sciences librarian at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Slagus holds a PhD in Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts of Education from Brock University as well as a master's in library and information science and a bachelor's in English literature from University of South Florida. Their research applies critical neurodiversity studies to children's literature, specifically interrogating representations of neurodivergence in twenty-first-century fiction for young readers. At the core of their work as a librarian and researcher is an unwavering commitment to accessibility for all.
Murray Wilcox is an independent scholar, though he is affiliated with Brock University. He is a collaborator with Dr. Lissa Paul in her SSHRC-funded research project on Eliza Fenwick. His research interests are eighteenth-century print culture and Romantic-period female authors. In his recent research on Eliza Fenwick's life in Upper Canada, Murray has been able to trace Eliza's social interactions with notable figures living there in the 1830s, including politicians, members of the British military and prominent local businessmen. As an archivist with the Addison Library at St Mark's Anglican Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Murray has worked on the transcription and publication of two MSS found within the collection. Over the last few years, Murray has given talks at ASECS, CSECS, NESECS, and BSECS.
Lissa Paul, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. The Children's Book Business (2011) and a biography, Eliza Fenwick: Early Modern Feminist (University of Delaware Press, 2019), constitute her previous two books on Fenwick. Paul was also an Associate General Editor of The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature (2005) and a co-editor of Keywords for Children's Literature (2011, 2021).
Adrienne Kitchin is a writer and educator focusing on women's health and education. She is a PhD candidate in Social, Cultural, and Political contexts of Education at Brock University. Adrienne combines her background in medical anthropology and her doctoral research in educational studies to locate-and to produce-counternarratives to long existing tropes regarding how women's pain is perceived in medical contexts. She uses new materialisms and counterhumanist anticolonialisms in her quest to close the gap in health disparities for women in their diverse intersectionality. Adrienne's research is dedicated to all those who have fallen through the cracks.
Jennifer Slagus is a neurodivergent assistant professor, social sciences librarian at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Slagus holds a PhD in Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts of Education from Brock University as well as a master's in library and information science and a bachelor's in English literature from University of South Florida. Their research applies critical neurodiversity studies to children's literature, specifically interrogating representations of neurodivergence in twenty-first-century fiction for young readers. At the core of their work as a librarian and researcher is an unwavering commitment to accessibility for all.
Murray Wilcox is an independent scholar, though he is affiliated with Brock University. He is a collaborator with Dr. Lissa Paul in her SSHRC-funded research project on Eliza Fenwick. His research interests are eighteenth-century print culture and Romantic-period female authors. In his recent research on Eliza Fenwick's life in Upper Canada, Murray has been able to trace Eliza's social interactions with notable figures living there in the 1830s, including politicians, members of the British military and prominent local businessmen. As an archivist with the Addison Library at St Mark's Anglican Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Murray has worked on the transcription and publication of two MSS found within the collection. Over the last few years, Murray has given talks at ASECS, CSECS, NESECS, and BSECS.
Content
Acknowledgements
Editorial Principles
Abbreviations
Introduction
1797-1800: Things Fall Apart
1801-1805: Imagining an Independent Life
1806-1810: From Author to Teacher
1811-1813: Toward a Colonial Life
1814-1821: Barbados
General Index
Editorial Principles
Abbreviations
Introduction
1797-1800: Things Fall Apart
1801-1805: Imagining an Independent Life
1806-1810: From Author to Teacher
1811-1813: Toward a Colonial Life
1814-1821: Barbados
General Index