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Creator
Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825
Call number
Pforz MS; MssCol 19390
Physical description
52 items
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Anna Letitia Barbauld manuscript material, Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library
Repository
Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Access to materials
Restricted access. Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Anna Letitia Barbauld, née Aikin, was an English author, editor, and literary critic. The collection consists primarily of correspondence dating between 1782 and 1822. It also includes one poem and one essay.

Biographical/historical information

Anna Letitia Barbauld's successful literary career spanned more than half a century. She was known as the author of such works as Eighteen Hundred and Eleven: A Poem (1812) and the editor of the 50-volume series The British Novelists (1810), which included her critical prefaces and an influential essay on the history and development of the English novel. Barbauld was also a prominent member of the Blue Stockings Society, a women's social and educational movement in eighteenth-century England.

Scope and arrangement

The Anna Letitia Barbauld manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings and correspondence. The writings include a four-line fragment of a poetical epistle to the Rev. William Enfield ("Go see the turf where Worth, where Virtue lies") and an early copy in an unidentifed hand of her memoir of her husband, the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, which was published in The Monthly Repository for December 1808. The more than 50 pieces of correspondence date between 1782 and 1822 and deal mostly with her writings and her criticisms of the writings of others. A long series of social and instructional letters from Barbauld to Lydia Rickards document her views on education, history, and grammar. Correspondents include Davies Giddy (later Gilbert), engineer, author, and politician; Hannah More, writer and philanthropist; Thomas Norton Longman, publisher; Richard Phillips, publisher; and Lydia Withering (née Rickards), her pupil and friend.

The Anna Letitia Barbauld manuscript material is arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

The letters to William Manning and Thomas Norton Longman were acquired under the auspices of the Pforzheimer Foundation through individual dealers. Since the Pforzheimer Collection's 1986 move to the New York Public Library, its Barbauld holdings have grown steadily through purchase both at auction and through individual dealers. In July 2016, the Pforzheimer Collection acquired 39 letters from Barbauld to Lydia Rickards, 3 letters from Barbauld to Lydia's mother, and a number of related manuscripts through Barbauld scholar William McCarthy. This collection had previously sold at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in May 2011. Because the Pforzheimer Collection collects actively, its holdings may grow in the future as items become available.

Processing information

Finding aid created and imported into ASpace by Timothy Gress in 2025.

Related Material

In addition to manuscript material created by Anna Letitia Barbauld, the Pforzheimer Collection holds letters written by and to Lydia Withering (née Rickards) which relate to Barbauld. These items are listed in Series III, Additional Materials. The Pforzheimer Collection also holds a representative collection of Barbauld's published work, as well as letters and manuscripts written by her brother, John Aikin, and her niece, Lucy Aikin. Additional printed and manuscript material by Barbauld can be found in the Berg Collection and the General Research Division.

Note

Items listed in Series I. Writings and Series II. Correspondence which have been published in The Collected Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld (4 volumes; Oxford University Press, 2019-2026) are listed with reference. 38 letters written or relating to Lydia Rickards have been published in the online edition Anna Letitia Barbauld Letters to Lydia Rickards, 1798–1815, edited by William McCarthy on Romantic Circles. https://romantic-circles.org/Editions/Publication/anna-letitia-barbauld-letters-lydia-rickards-1798-1815?page=1

Using the collection

Location

Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 319

Access to materials

Restricted access. Request an in-person research appointment.