One of The Tablet's Books of the Year 2021
Portraits of Wollstonecraft collects and introduces 102 texts and artifacts that document Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in art, literature, philosophy and feminist politics. Each portrait is a milestone in her depiction in culture. From William Blake’s 1803 poem ‘Mary’ to Maggi Hambling's contentious sculpture in 2020, these sources validate the monumental place Wollstonecraft holds in not just one but many canons.
The color images in Part I: Public Sightings trace her earliest reception in portraiture, from 1785 to 1804, with detailed analysis paired with each of the illustrations. Arranged chronologically, these landmark images are followed by the reviews of Wollstonecraft's books that appeared
during her lifetime in Jamaica, Madrid, Amsterdam and London. Part II: Global Afterlives, examines her multifarious posthumous reception and features diary entries, excerpts from English-language biographies, letters, articles and introductions to her books. From Olive Schreiner's introduction to the Rights of Women composed in Cape Town in 1889 to the translator’s preface to the first Czech edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1904, they showcase an impressive sweep of cross-cultural perspectives on her life and writings.
The sources in Part III: Making an International Icon chart the depth and breadth of her legacies on a global scale. Feminists, philosophers, and social scientists—from Ruth Benedict to Virginia Sapiro to Amartya Sen—have written and spoken with conviction about the emotional power of looking into the eyes of the author of the Rights of Woman. This section includes major thinkers from across the 19th and 20th centuries who responded to Wollstonecraft's theories on virtue, love, gender, education, and rights: Mary Shelley, Emma Goldman, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Susan Moller Okin, Barbara Johnson and Martha Nussbaum.
We see how Wollstonecraft gained traction in feminist politics, both as a philosopher and as a transcultural icon of the cause, beginning with English suffragist Millicent Fawcett’s centennial edition of the Rights of Woman in 1891 and extending through feminist art in The Paris Review during the age of #MeToo. Assembling responses from Ireland, Continental Europe, North and South America and across the former colonies of the British Empire, this one-of-a-kind collection tells a compelling story of Wollstonecraft's watershed contributions to human rights debates throughout the modern and contemporary world.
Edited by:
Eileen M. Hunt
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350378711
ISBN 10: 1350378712
Pages: 744
Publication Date: 14 December 2023
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Preface: Charting Wollstonecraft's Global Reception Editorial Policy Part I: Public Sightings, 1785-1804 Chapter 1. The Earliest Portraiture of Wollstonecraft, 1785-1804 1. C. 1787-92. Portrait by John Keenan 2. C. 1785-90. Photograph (1936) of oval miniature by James Sowerby and C. 1785-90. Photograph (1937) of rectangular miniature by James Sowerby 3. C. 1790-91. Portrait by John Opie 4. C. 1791. Portrait by John Williamson 5. 1791. Frontispiece by William Blake for Original Stories from Real Life 6. 1796. Engraving by William Ridley 7. 1797. Portrait by John Opie 8. 1797. Engraving by James Heath and 1798 and Engraving by John Chapman 9. 1802. Engraving by Roy 10. 1804. Copy of 1797 Opie by John Keenan Chapter 2. Her International Reception in Print, 1787-1797 11. 1787. Book review of Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (London) 12. 1788. Book review of Mary, a Fiction (London) 13. 1788. Book review of Original Stories from Real Life (London) 14. 1790. Book review of A Vindication of the Rights of Men (London) 15. 1791. Newspaper editorial on A Vindication of the Rights of Men (Kingston, Jamaica) 16. 1792. Book review of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (London) 17. 1792. Book review of the first French edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Madrid) 18. 1792. “On Modesty,” excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (London) 19. 1792. Thomas Taylor's A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes (London) 20. 1793. Book review of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Paris) 21. 1793. Christian Salzmann's ""Preface"" to the first German Edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Schnepfenthal) 22. 1794. Ann Harker's ""Salutatory Oration"" at the Young Ladies' Academy (Philadelphia) 23. 1795. John Henry Colls's Poetical Epistle Addressed to Mary Wollstonecraft (London) 24. 1796. ""The Lost First Dutch Edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"" (Amsterdam), by Myriam Everard 25. 1796. Book review of Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (London) 26. 1797. Newspaper advertisement for William Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (London) Part II: Global Afterlives, 1798-1913 Chapter 3 Biographies in English, 1798-1884 27. 1798. William Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (London) 28. 1798. Priscilla Wakefield's diary entry on Godwin's Memoirs (London) 29. 1800. Mary Hays's “Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft” (London) 30. 1803. Anonymous, “A defence of the character and conduct of the late Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin” (London) 31. 1831. John Knowles's The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli (London) 32. 1833. Anonymous, “A Brief Sketch of the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft"" (New York) 33. 1840. William Hamilton Drummond's Autobiography of Archibald Hamilton Rowan (Dublin) 34. 1854. William Linton, woodcut engraving of ""Mary Wollstonecraft"" for The English Republic (Brantwood, England) 35. 1876. Charles Kegan Paul's William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries (London) 36. 1876. Sara A. Underwood's Heroines of Freethought (New York) 37. 1879. Charles Kegan Paul's Letters to Imlay, with Prefatory Memoir (London) 38. 1884. Elizabeth Robins Pennell's Life of Mary Wollstonecraft (London) Chapter 4 International Perspectives, 1798-1913 39. 1798. Pierre-Louis Roederer's “Miscellanies: Of Two New Novels” (Paris) 40. 1799. Hipólito José da Costa's Diário da minha viagem para Filadélfia (Long Island Sound) 41. 1799. “Translator’s Note” to the first Swedish edition of Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman (Stockholm) 42. 1800. Richard Polwhele's The Unsex'd Females (New York) 43. 1801-02 ""Jørgen Borch's first Danish edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman""(Kiøbenhavn) by Arman Teymouri Niknam 44. 1805. ""Domenico Antonio Filippi's Italian translations from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Godwin's Memoirs (Vienna),” by Serena Vantin 45. 1818. Hannah Mather Crocker's Observations on the Real Rights of Women (Boston) 46. 1827. José da Silva Lisboa, Diário da Câmara dos Senadores do Impériodo Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 47. 1832-1853. ""Nísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta and the Public Reception of Wollstonecraft in Brazil,"" by Charlotte Hammond Matthews 48. 1836. Gustav von Schlabrendorf's “Mary Wollstonecraft” (Hechingen) 49. 1859. Gustav Klemm, Die Frauen (Dresden) 50. 1866. Lucretia Mott's remarks delivered at the 11th National Woman’s Rights Convention (New York) 51. 1885. ""Marie Catfauminges de La Forge's 'Uma Educadora' (Santa Catarina, Brazil),"" by Charlotte Hammond Matthews 52. 1889. ""A Difficult Vindication: Olive Schreiner's Wollstonecraft,"" by Carolyn Burdett 53. 1889. Olive Schreiner's “Introduction to the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rights of Woman” (Cape Town) 54. 1891. Elizabeth Robins Pennell, “Prefatory Note” to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Budapest) 55. 1899. Bertha Pappenheim, translator's introduction to the second German edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Dresden and Leipzig) 56. 1904. Cover art, frontispiece, and translator's preface by Anna Holmová, for the first Czech edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Prague) 57. 1901-1913. Elvira’s Lopez’s El Movimiento Feminista and La Nacion’s “El Movimiento Sufragistra” (Buenos Aires) Part III Making an International Feminist Icon, 1801-2020 Chapter 5. Literary and Graphic Depictions in English, 1801-2015 58. 1801. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe's poem “The Vision of Liberty” (London) 59. 1803. William Blake's poem “Mary” (London) 60. 1805. ""Equality of the Sexes,"" frontispiece to John Corry's novella, Memoirs of Francis Goodwin (London) 61. 1831. Mary Shelley's “Introduction"" to Frankenstein (London) 62. 1845. Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Boston) 63. 1855. George Eliot's essay “Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft” (London) 64. 1862. Mrs. Tamar Davis's poem “Mary Wollstonecraft” (Boston) 65. 1877. Harriet Martineau's Autobiography (London) 66. 1883. Robert Browning's poem “Mary Wollstonecraft and Fuseli” (London) 67. 1922. Josephine Peabody's play Portrait of Mrs. W. (Boston) 68. 1929. G.E.G. Catlin's introduction to the Everyman edition of The Rights of Woman and The Subjection of Women (London and New York) 69. 1932. Virginia Woolf's essay “Mary Wollstonecraft” (London) 70. 1954. Pamela Frankau's introduction to the Everyman edition of The Rights of Woman and The Subjection of Women (London) 71. 1967. Charles W. Hagelman, Jr.'s introduction to the Norton Edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (New York) 72. 1972. David Levine cartoon of Wollstonecraft for The New York Review of Books (New York) 73. 1974. Cover art for Richard Cobb's book review of Claire Tomalin's The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft in The Times Literary Supplement (London) 74. 1975. Miriam Brody Kramnick's introduction to the Penguin Pelican edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (New York and Harmondsworth) 75. 1976. David Levine cartoon of Wollstonecraft for The New York Review of Books (New York) 76. 1982. Barbara Johnson's review essay, ""My Monster/ My Self"" (Ithaca, New York) 77. 2002. Women's Graphic Collective poster of ""Wollstonecraft-Shelley""(Chicago) 78. 2009. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's ""Mary Wollstonecraft!"" comic in ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! (New York) 79. 2015. Claire Robertson's prototype illustration for Jordan Stratford's The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series (New York) Chapter 6. Global Feminisms, 1891-2020 80. 1891. Millicent Fawcett's introduction to a centennial edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (London) 81. 1893. Voltairine de Cleyre's poem “Mary Wollstonecraft” (Philadelphia) 82. 1898. Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough's A Study of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rights of Woman (London and Madras) 83. 1908. Mary Lowndes's ""Mary Wollstonecraft"" suffrage banner (London) 84. 1911. Emma Goldman's lecture, “Mary Wollstonecraft, Her Tragic Life and Passionate Struggle for Freedom"" (New York) 85. 1914-17. Ruth Benedict, manuscript chapter on “Mary Wollstonecraft” (New York) 86. 1915. ""WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN IN BOOKS,"" illustrated cover page of The New York Times Review of Books (New York) 87. 1949. Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (Paris) 88. 1963. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (New York) 89. 1970. Susan Moller (Okin)'s B. Phil. chapter on Wollstonecraft (Oxford) 90. 1974. ""Gionata's Italian translation of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman for the Anarchist Journal Volontà (Milan),” by Serena Vantin 91. 1979. Judy Chicago's ""Wollstonecraft Table Runner"" for the art installation, The Dinner Party (New York) 92. 1980. Cover art for the first Japanese edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Tokyo) 93. 1980. Translator Shirai Takako's commentary on the first Japanese edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Tokyo) 94. 1986. Martha Nussbaum's book review, ""Women's Lot,"" in The New York Review of Books (New York) 95. 1992. Translator's Preface to the first Chinese edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Beijing) 96. 1997. Translator Kawatsu Masae's afterword to the first Japanese edition of Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman (Tokyo) 97. 2004. Amartya Sen's keynote address, ""Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary!"" at the 13th annual conference of the International Association for Feminist Economics (Oxford) 98. 2011. Translator Moon Suhyo?n's introduction to and commentary on the 2011 Korean edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Seoul) 99. 2013. Stewy's street art, ""Mary Wollstonecraft"" (London) 100. 2014. Translator Son Yongmi's preface to the 2014 Korean edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Seoul) 101. 2017. Merrily Grashin's cartoon, ""Bloody Mary Woll Stout Craft,"" in The Paris Review (New York) 102.2020. Maggi Hambling, “Statue for Wollstonecraft” (London) NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX"
Eileen M. Hunt is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, USA.
Reviews for Portraits of Wollstonecraft: The Making of a Feminist Icon, 1785 to 2020
Gloriously readable...This compendium of reaction to the famous radical starts with 18th-century print and image, moving through the canon—Virginia Woolf, poetry by Robert Browning—to contemporary international reception. Cartoons rub shoulders with Oxford lectures in a rich new kind of portraiture of both Wollstonecraft and our changing society. * The Tablet * The most monumental achievement...documents and reflects on Wollstonecraft’s cross-cultural influence on debates about women’s rights over the course of two centuries. * Literature Compass * An important collection that makes significant contributions to our understanding of Wollstonecraft’s influence as a thinker and philosopher. Hunt demonstrates that far from disappearing from the world stage after her death—an assumption made by many Wollstonecraft scholars—her ideas spread worldwide, shaping generations of writers, thinkers, and ordinary people. This is an essential new finding in Wollstonecraft scholarship as it provides evidence of Wollstonecraft’s significance as a political scientist, writer, and philosopher. Hunt demonstrates how Wollstonecraft has played a far larger role in the history of ideas than hitherto acknowledged. * Charlotte Gordon, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, Endicott College, USA * It is unique. Rich in discoveries and surprises, this book brings together a multitude of responses to Wollstonecraft as a literary and philosophical figure and of perspectives on her works from her contemporaries in Britain and abroad as well as a variety of authors in the 19th and early 20th century. * Sylvana Tomaselli, Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge, UK *
