Mary Wollstonecraft Manuscript Material

The New York Public Library is now offering grab-and-go service at 50 locations as part of our gradual reopening. Find a location near you, and learn about our remote resources.

Home

Search Browse About

Items Collections Divisions

Digital Collections Using Images Using Data

Navigation About Filters

Collection Data

Description: Mary Wollstonecraft, the English author and advocate of women's rights. Her Vindication of the Rights of Woman is the most influential work of early feminist philosophy; she also wrote novels, reviews, and books for children. This guide lists and describes the manuscript materials held by the Pforzheimer Collection that were created by Mary Wollstonecraft, including including original holograph writings and letters.
Names: Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 (Creator); Barlow, Ruth, 1755-1818 (Addressee); Dyson, George, 1773-1822 (Addressee); Gabell, Henry, 1764-1831 (Addressee); Gardiner, Jane, 1758-1840 (Addressee); Gisborne, Maria, 1770-1836 (Addressee); Hays, Mary, 1759 or 1760-1843 (Addressee); Johnson, Joseph, 1738-1809 (Addressee); Macaulay, Catharine, 1731-1791 (Addressee); Marshall, James, 1756?-1832 (Addressee); Opie, Amelia, 1769-1853 (Addressee); Robinson, Mary, 1758-1800 (Addressee); Wollstonecraft, Everina, 1765-1841 (Addressee)
Dates / Origin: Date Created: 1773 - 1797
Library locations: Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle; Shelf locator: Pforz MS
Topics: Authors, English -- 18th century; English essays -- 18th century
Genres: Correspondence; manuscripts
Notes: Content: The Mary Wollstonecraft manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings and correspondence. The writings include a holograph fragment of her essay, "On Poetry", and a holograph review of Karl Gottlieb Cramer's gothic novel, Albert de Nordenshild. Also held is a contemporary manuscript fragment of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman which could be in Wollstonecraft's hand, convincingly so to some eyes. The bulk of the correspondence is dated between 1787 and 1797. Correspondents include: Catharine Macaulay, the historian; Mary Hays, the novelist; Joseph Johnson, the bookseller; and over a half dozen others. The fifteen letters to Wollstonecraft's friend Jane Arden are transcripts in an early 19th century copybook, possibly in Arden's hand. Items treated in Shelley and his Circle or in Janet Todd's Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft are noted with reference.
Physical Description: Extent: 48 items
Type of Resource: Text
Identifiers: NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b20478284; MSS Unit ID: 21894; Archives collections id: archives_collections_21894; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): c4eb1760-d8be-0133-aec6-00505686d14e