1743–1825

Biography

English essayist, poet, children’s author, and teacher Anna Laetitia Barbauld was one of the most successful women in letters of her time. She was already an established writer when Coleridge and Wordsworth began publishing their own work, and she initially inspired these Romantic poets. They became literary enemies later in their careers, however, and traded barbs through published reviews, poems, and lectures. “The Rights of Women” is one of her best known poems.

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