Anne Bannerman

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Anne Bannerman
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died29 September 1829
Portobello, Edinburgh
Pen nameAugusta
OccupationPoet
PeriodRomantic
RelativesIsobel (née Dick) Bannerman (mother); William Bannerman (father)

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Anne Bannerman (31 October 1765 – 29 September 1829) was a Scottish poet. She was part of the Edinburgh literary circle which included

Robert Anderson. Her work was popular in her lifetime[1] and "remains significant for her Gothic ballads, as well as for her innovative sonnet series and her bold original odes."[2]

Early life

Bannerman was born in Edinburgh to Isobel (née Dick) and William Bannerman, a "running stationer" licensed to sell ballads in the streets.

Career

Bannerman's early work was published, often pseudonymously, in periodicals, notably the Monthly Magazine, the Poetical Register, and the

The Sorrows of Werther. In these two latter Bannerman developed Joanna Baillie's theory of dramatic composition — her stated intent to focus on the progress of one master passion — and applied it to poetry. Her second collection, Tales of Superstition and Chivalry (1802) was published anonymously. It consisted of ten Gothic ballads and four engravings and did not fare so well with reviewers, in part because of her penchant for the strain of obscurity and ambiguity within the Gothic tradition.[3] Her ballads were, however, praised by Walter Scott.[4]

After the deaths of her mother and brother, she struggled financially and was a governess for a period despite precarious health. Although various of her friends supported her and sought to procure her a pension, such attempts were largely unsuccessful and she died in debt on 29 September 1829.

Contemporary scholars are rediscovering her work and she is the subject of several recent studies.

Works

Notes

  1. ^ "Anne Bannerman." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Accessed 8 Aug. 2022. (Orlando)
  2. ^ Adriana Craciun, "Bannerman, Anne (1765–1829)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: OUP, 2004).
  3. ^ Adriana Craciun, Fatal Women of Romanticism (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003), 156.
  4. T.F. Henderson
    . Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1932. Vol. 4.16–17.

Bibliography

Etexts

See also

  • List of 18th-century labouring-class writers (England, Wales, and Great Britain)

External links