Author: Ritson, Anne
Biography:
RITSON, Anne or Ann (fl 1799-1825)
Mrs. Ritson was an English writer who published in London and came to specialize in early-childhood readers and lesson books. When her husband Thomas, a flour merchant and shipping agent, went to trade in the US, she followed him and spent eight years in Virginia from 1799 to 1807. On their return she published a generally light-hearted but sometimes more severely critical account of their experience, A Poetical Picture of America (1809). It had a long and distinguished subscription list headed by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, and was widely reviewed. In 1811 she was living in Hackney: her Poetical Chain, dated from there, is dedicated to Lady Chambers, who had subscribed for six copies of the Poetical Picture (and her daughter for another three). Besides the verse exercises included here, she wrote short stories for children (The Monthly Monitor, 1816) and reading lessons with words of no more than two syllables (Spring Flowers, 1825). (findmypast.com 1 Aug. 2020; Norfolk Gazette [VA] 27 Oct. 1804; William S. Ward, "American Authors and British Reviewers 1798-1826: A Bibliography," American Literature 49 [1977] 1-21)
Other Names:
- Mrs. Ritson