Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T07:28:25.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The “Joineriana”: Barbauld, the Aikin family circle, and the Dissenting public sphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Daniel E. White
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

In 1775, two years after Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose, by J. and A. L. Aikin issued from the press of Joseph Johnson, Anna Barbauld wrote to her brother John, “I think we must some day sew all our fragments together, and make a Joineriana of them. Let me see: – I have, half a ballad; the first scene of a play; a plot of another, all but the catastrophe; half a dozen loose similies, and an eccentric flight or two among the fairies” (Works, ii, p. 9). In her use of the expression “Joineriana,” Anna implies to John that whereas their half-ballads, first scenes, loose similies, and eccentric flights might remain incomplete on their own, by “sewing” these fragments together the siblings could produce a presentable patchwork. Although this particular project never materialized, she continued to conceive of literary production according to a model of familial collaboration. Twelve years later, as Barbauld and her husband, Rochemont, were settling into their new home in Hampstead, she wrote to her brother, “We are making a catalogue of our books; and I have left a great deal of space under the letters A. and B. for our future publications” (Works, ii, p. 155). The growth of this catalogue accompanies Barbauld's organization of a new domestic setting in which she, her husband, and their adopted son Charles, the biological child of John and Martha Aikin, will live.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×