Author: Barbauld, Anna Laetitia
Biography:
BARBAULD, Anna Laetitia, formerly Aikin (1743-1825: ODNB)
Poet, essayist, educator. Daughter of John Aikin, DD, and Jane (Jennings) Aikin. Her father was a tutor in the dissenting academy at Warrington, Leics.; he taught her Latin and some Greek, and she was a voracious reader. With the encouragement and sometimes the collaboration of her brother John, she began early to publish poems and essays, ranging from the burlesque through the political to the devotional. She married a graduate of the academy, the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, in 1772, and together they ran a successful boys' school in Palgrave, Suffolk: her best-known writings were contributions to early-childhood education arising from her experience there. After her husband's death by suicide in 1808 she undertook an edition of novels in English, The British Novelists, in 50 volumes (1810). Part of a close-knit family, she also had a wide literary acquaintance, particularly in dissenting circles. (RPW; ODNB 6 Nov. 2017)
Other Names:
- A. L. Barbauld
- Anna Laetitia Aikin, i.e. Mrs. Barbauld
- Anna Letitia Barbauld
- Barbauld
- Mrs. Barbauld