Hester Lynch Piozzi, Samuel Johnson, Anna Seward letters, and other letters
Overview
Letters written by Hester Lynch Piozzi, Samuel Johnson, Anna Seward, and others, describing conditions in late 18th and early 19th-century England.
Dates
- Creation: 1758-1820
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English and French.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
.4 linear feet (1 box)Predominately letters written by Hester Lynch Piozzi to her friends after the death of her husband and banishment from the artistic world. Piozzi writes to her friends and family mourning her old age and loss of artistic stimulation since her scandalous marriage to Gabriele Mario Piozzi (1740-1809) in the midst of Napoleonic Wars hardships. Includes sympathy notes, gossip, requests for literature, and bill payments on past homesteads. Also includes letters from Samuel Johnson and Anna Seward to friends and family discussing poor health and its negative effects on their work.
Biographical / Historical
Hester Lynch Salusbury was born in Wales in 1741, and in 1763 married wealthy London brewer Henry Thrale. After the Thrales were introduced to Samuel Johnson in 1765, their home became the center of an important coterie of literary, artistic, and political figures.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was one of the leading literary figures of eighteenth-century England. He is best remembered for compiling the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, published in 1755. He was memorialized in James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791).
Anna Seward (1747-1809) was an English Romantic poet.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent.
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2008M-107. Purchase with the Endowment Fund for the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection and the Amy Lowell Trust; received: 2009 May 15.
Processing Information
Processed by: Clinton Johnson
- Title
- Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 1741-1821. Hester Lynch Piozzi, Samuel Johnson, Anna Seward letters, and other letters, 1758-1820: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02473
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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