Necessity obliges me to write
Priscilla Wakefield was the author of 17 books many of which ran into several editions both here and abroad. The books were mainly children's books and travel books; although Priscilla didn't travel far herself her books were based on extensive research. She wrote her first book at 43 and only began writing when it became necessary for the family income after her husband's business failed.
Priscilla desperately needed her books to sell and noted that her books such as Juvenile Travellers, chiefly recorded the actions of children whose parents have had leisure to superintend their education themselves, or have possessed fortunes sufficiently easy to pay persons properly qualified, to instruct them. She noted in the preface that she had heard children complain that moral tales were not likely to alter their conduct because 'they were not true, but merely fictions, to entertain.' And it was this that inspired her to produce Juvenile Anecdotes, which was composed mostly of incidents which had really occurred to children of her acquaintance. As well as natural history her books covered themes on which she campaigned such as the evils of slavery and the boycotting of slave-produced goods such as sugar and cotton. |
Received every encouragement relative to my writings that I can wish.
Let me guard against the vanity that naturally follows success’.
24 June 1796
Let me guard against the vanity that naturally follows success’.
24 June 1796
Publishers:
|
Elizabeth Newbery continued the publishing business established by John Newbery the pioneering children's book publisher who made a specialty of books for children, written by Quakers and others,
In 1787, the Quaker William Darton (1755-1819) began business as a printer, engraver and book publisher in London under his own name or as W. Darton & Co. Moving to premises at 55 Gracechurch Street in 1788, in 1791 he began a partnership with another Quaker, Joseph Harvey (1764-1841), setting up the firm of Darton & Harvey. They but also, following the path charted by and by the early 1800s the family firm was the established leader in the field. Priscilla's one book for adults, Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex, with Suggestions for its Improvement, was brought out by the radical Unitarian publisher Joseph Johnson. |
Sources
![]() The Hockliffe Project has been designed to promote the study of early British children's literature. It provides internet access to the Hockliffe Collection of Early Children's Books, located in Bedford in the UK. This website contains a catalogue of the Collection along with digital images of many of the books, plus bibliographical information and critical and contextualising essays. The Project’s aim is to facilitate a re-evaluation of children's literature in its own infancy, and to let these rich and varied books speak for themselves.
|
Contact: PWForgottenHeroine@gmail.com
|