Anna Letitia Barbauld: Selected Poetry and Prose (Broadview Editions) - Softcover

"As a poet, essayist, editor, and teacher, Anna Letitia Barbauld attained a position of eminence in her own time, distinguishing herself in a tradition of Dissenting writers, such as Priestley, Wollstonecraft, and Coleridge. McCarthy and Kraft's fascinating historical introduction and notes place Barbauld's life and work in the context of middle-class, Dissenting culture, noting her complex, and often misunderstood, positions on womanhood, Presbyterianism, and politics. Her poems are now regarded as landmarks in the dawn of English Romanticism, and the editors of this edition offer a generous selection of Barbauld's widely admired prose writings, many of which have not been reprinted until now. Here as poet and essayist Barbauld's rhetorical powers and commitment to justice, ingenuousness, tolerance, and imagination, to borrow her own phrase, 'shine out.' The volume is indispensable." -- Michele Martinez, Trinity College, Connecticut "McCarthy and Kraft are the pre-eminent authorities on Barbauld. Extraordinarily well-researched and readable, this is a superb edition of works by one of the finest and most influential writers of the Romantic era." -- Paula Feldman, University of South Carolina

At her death in 1825, Anna Letitia Barbauld was considered one of the great writers of her time. Distinguished as a poet and essayist, she was also in innovator in children's literature, an eloquent supporter of liberal politics, and a literary critic of stature. This edition includes a generous selection of her poetry and the first comprehensive body of her prose in more than a century, with essays-some never before reprinted-on literature, religion, education, prejudice, women's fashions, and class conflict.