Joanna Baillie was a Scottish poet and dramatist, known for such works as Plays on the Passions and Fugitive Verses. She shows her interest in moral philosophy and the Gothic. She was critically acclaimed in her lifetime, and while living in Hampstead, associated with literary contemporaries such as Anna Barbauld, Lucy Aikin, and Walter Scott. She died at the age of 88.
About Joanna Baillie
A Scottish-born poet and playwright of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, she is best known for her 1798 drama, The Plays on the Passions. A popular writer of her era, she held literary society meetings at her home in Hampstead, England.
Before Fame
She was sent to a Glasgow boarding school at the age of ten. It was there that she first delighted in the performance and writing of plays.
Achievement
Despite her gender, she experienced great literary fame during her lifetime, and she insisted upon being labeled as a true playwright rather than as a "closet" dramatist.
Family Life
She was the youngest daughter of a Presbyterian minister. On account of a small inheritance from her uncle, she decided not to marry.
Associations
She and Duncan MacIntyre were both Scottish poets.
Information related to Joanna Baillie
- Writers of the Romantic era
- Scottish women dramatists and playwrights
- 19th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights
- Scottish Christians
- Scottish women poets
- 18th-century Scottish writers
- 18th-century British writers
- 19th-century Scottish writers
- 19th-century British writers