Mary Wollstonecraft: Chronology
1759 On April 27 Mary Wollstonecraft was born to Elizabeth Dickson and Edward
John Wollstonecraft. She was the second
child, a brother Edward having been born a few years
earlier. Four additional children would follow.
Her grandfather was well to do - having established
one of the early mills in England. But Mary's father quit his job at the mill
as soon as he received his inheritance and lived the life of
the 'gentleman' drinking and gambling the money away. Slowly the
family began a descent through the economic scale.
Mary took on the role of 'dutiful daughter' often
attempting to protect her mother and brothers and sisters from the wrath of her
father, who became combative after drinking too much.
1770 The family moved
to Beverly. Here Mary Wollstonecraft became friends with Jane Arden. John
Arden, Jane's father was a
well known teacher and philosopher of the day and he took
some interest in Mary's intellectual growth.
1774 The Wollstonecraft
family moved again, now to Huxton. Here Mary became
acquainted with and appears to have worked
for the Clare's who had the well stocked library of retired
clergy and who also introduced Mary to Fanny Blood, who was to become
'her dearest friend' until
her untimely death in childbirth.
The Clares encouraged and
helped with introductions as Mary Wollstonecraft set out to become independent
- working as a
companion,
governess and later as founder of a day school.
1783, Mary helped her
sister Eliza escape an oppressive and brutal marriage. This was an illegal
action and the two had to 'hide out'
until a legal separation could be worked out. Then
with the help of the Clares and other Dissenters at
Newington Green, Mary
established a
school at Newington Green, employed her sister and others. The school
eventually failed financially.
1785 She began writing
at the suggestion of John Hewett.
1786 Thoughts on the
Education of Daughters: with Reflections on Female conduct in the More
Important Duties of Life was
published by
Joseph Johnson, who happened to be Hewett's publisher. This began a long
association with Johnson. He taught
Mary a great deal about writing, offering sound and
careful criticism of her work. She soon became a prolific reviewer of books
and did
translations of foreign works into English.
1787 Her Original
Stories from Real Life: with Conversations, Calculated to Regulate the
Affections and form the Mind to Truth
and Goodness was punished.
1788 Is when she began
doing book reviews for Johnson & Christie's journal, The Analytical Review.
1789 her translation
of Necker's De L'Importance des Opins Religieuses was
published and this was followed by a translation of
Young Grandison and she compiled a collection of poetry and prose, Female
Reader.
1790 her translation of
Salzmann’s Elements of Morality was published as well as A
vindication of the Rights of Men , a work
penned in haste and great heat after Edmund Burke published Reflections
on the Revolution in which he argued that only
aristocracy's should vote and rule.
Wollstonecraft's impassioned defense of universal
suffrage was an immediate best seller both
in England and the Americas.
1792 She published
another best seller, A vindication of the
Rights of Woman this done in response toTalleyrand's
apparent
willingness to adopt Rousseau's educational plan which
advocated separate and unequal education for girls and boys.
In that same year, she set out for Paris. There, she
collected materials for An Historical and Moral View of the Origins and
Progress of the
French Revolution: and the effect it has produced in Europe (vol I, 1794) and like Olympe de Goudges was
critical of the Reign of Terror.
It was there that she met Mary met Captain Gilbert
Imlay, an American timber-merchant and author of The Western Territory
of North America. She agreed to become Imlay's common law wife and in May 1794, she gave birth
to a daughter whom she
named, Fanny.
In November
1795, after a four months' visit to Scandinavia as his "wife," she he
deserted her. Mary tried to kill
herself by drowning but did not succeed.
1794 Historical and
Moral View of the Origins and Profess of the French Revolution was published.
1797 She published in
the Monthly Review an article "On Poetry and Our Relish of the
Beauties of Nature.
In addition to these works Mary Wollstonecraft
composed at least two other works which were unpublished in her lifetimes,
Cave of Fancy and Maria or the Wrongs of Women.
Wollstonecraft married the political philosopher
Godwin. They lived in proximate but separate apartments - coming together for
dinner each evening.
1797 She died of
puerperal fever after giving birth because the physician failed to remove all
the 'after birth'. She was working on
a child's reader at the time.
Although it is clear that Mary Wollstonecraft
advocated the education and democratic rights for women. However, she did
include
gender roles in her educational plans - with girls and boys
becoming prepared for different sorts of careers. And it must also be
noted that she was first and foremost a democrat, advocating
universal suffrages opposed to political power only for the landed
aristocracy. It was her democratic leanings, that ALL human being
should be enfranchised that under girded her advocacy of
the rights of women.
URL: http://www.women-philosophers.com/Mary-Wollstonecraft.html
The information has been taken on 31st of
October 2008
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