Mary Wollstonecraft: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Mary Wollstonecraft wrote from inside London's radical Dissenting circle around publisher Joseph Johnson, arguing with Rousseau, Burke and Enlightenment pedagogy in the heat of the French Revolution. This mix traces the conduct books and rational-education texts she absorbed, the friends and lovers who shaped her, and the feminist and Gothic afterlives her work seeded.

The Kynda mix for Mary Wollstonecraft

• Key Influence · Emile, or On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762). Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is in large part a sustained quarrel with Rousseau's Book V, where Sophie is educated only to please Emile. She admired Rousseau's account of natural development and his prose enough to adopt his framework, then turned it against him, insisting reason is not sexed. Reading Emile first makes the Vindication legible as a reply rather than a manifesto in a vacuum.,
• Influencia Obscura · Letters on Education by Catharine Macaulay (1790). Macaulay, the radical historian, argued for coeducation and identical intellectual training for boys and girls two years before the Vindication. Wollstonecraft reviewed the book for Joseph Johnson's Analytical Review and praised it warmly; Macaulay died in 1791, shortly after their brief correspondence. Largely forgotten for two centuries, she is the closest thing Wollstonecraft had to a direct feminist predecessor in print.,
• Local Roots · A Discourse on the Love of Our Country by Richard Price (1789). Price was the Dissenting minister at Newington Green, the village north of London where Wollstonecraft opened her school in 1784 and found her intellectual home. His sermon welcoming the French Revolution provoked Burke's Reflections, which in turn provoked Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Men — the first published reply to Burke. Her career as a political writer begins on this street.,
• Beyond the Medium · The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli (1781). Wollstonecraft fell obsessively in love with the Swiss-born painter Fuseli in the early 1790s, proposing a platonic household with him and his wife and being shown the door. Fuseli's eroticised, Miltonic phantasmagoria is the visual counterweight to her rational prose — evidence of the appetite for sensibility and passion that her fiction, and her own life, kept insisting reason had to accommodate.,
• Peer · Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke (1790). Burke's elegy for Marie Antoinette and for chivalric hierarchy was the target Wollstonecraft demolished within weeks in A Vindication of the Rights of Men, arguing his aesthetics of the beautiful — soft, weak, decorative — was precisely what shackled women. Reading Burke reveals how much of her feminism grew out of an argument about taste, sentiment and the sublime rather than suffrage.,
• From the Canon · A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792). Written in roughly six weeks for Joseph Johnson and dedicated to Talleyrand, whose report on French national education excluded girls. It argues that women appear irrational because they are trained to be ornaments, demands coeducational state schooling, and treats marriage without economic independence as legalised prostitution. The founding text of Anglophone feminist philosophy.,
• Key Collaborator · Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by William Godwin (1798). Godwin married Wollstonecraft in 1797 while she was pregnant with Mary; they lived in adjoining houses to preserve independence. His grief-stricken memoir, published months after her death, candidly recorded her love affairs, illegitimate daughter and suicide attempts — and destroyed her reputation for a century. An extraordinary document of both a partnership and an act of catastrophic honesty.,
• Legacy · Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (1818). Wollstonecraft died of puerperal fever eleven days after giving birth to Mary, who learned to read partly at her mother's graveside in St Pancras and grew up on her books in Godwin's household. Frankenstein's abandoned creature — unmothered, self-educated, ruined by the withholding of sympathy and instruction — is the most powerful inheritance of Wollstonecraft's arguments about nurture and neglect.,

What influenced Mary Wollstonecraft

• John Locke. Locke's educational philosophy influenced Wollstonecraft's Original Stories. (via Original Stories from Real Life, Some Thoughts Concerning Education) “Both books also emphasize the importance of teaching children to reason, revealing Wollstonecraft's intellectual debt to the educational views of seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke” (Wikipedia)
• Emile, or On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762). Emile, or On Education (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) — titan for Mary Wollstonecraft “They refused to grant women equal rights, denounced "Amazons", and made it clear that women were supposed to conform to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideal of helpers to men.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Some Thoughts Concerning Education by John Locke (1693). Some Thoughts Concerning Education (John Locke) — titan for Mary Wollstonecraft “Both books also emphasize the importance of teaching children to reason, revealing Wollstonecraft's intellectual debt to the educational views of seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli (1781). The Nightmare (Henry Fuseli) — culture for Mary Wollstonecraft “After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Letters on Education by Catharine Macaulay (1790). Letters on Education (Catharine Macaulay) — ghost for Mary Wollstonecraft “In addition, scholars have noted Macaulay's impact on early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake (1794). Songs of Innocence and of Experience (William Blake) — culture for Mary Wollstonecraft “Johnson's house was a meeting-place for some leading English intellectual dissidents of the time: the theologian and scientist Joseph Priestley; the philosopher Richard Price; the artist John Henry Fuseli; the early feminist Mary Wollsto…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• A Serious Proposal to the Ladies by Mary Astell (1694). A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (Mary Astell) — ghost for Mary Wollstonecraft (openlibrary.org)

Peers and kindred spirits

• William Blake (1757). Places Blake in the same radical circle as Mary Wollstonecraft through publisher Joseph Johnson. (also via A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Original Stories from Real Life, Songs of Innocence and of Experience) “the artist John Henry Fuseli ; [ 39 ] the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft” (Wikipedia)
• William Godwin. Wollstonecraft and Godwin had a personal and intellectual relationship, later marrying. (also via Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) “Godwin and Wollstonecraft's unique courtship began slowly, but it eventually became a passionate love affair” (Wikipedia)
• Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke (1790). Reflections on the Revolution in France (Edmund Burke) — peer for Mary Wollstonecraft “She had written the Rights of Men in response to the Whig MP Edmund Burke 's politically conservative critique of the French Revolution in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)” (Wikipedia)
• A Discourse on the Love of Our Country by Richard Price (1789). A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (Richard Price) — geography for Mary Wollstonecraft “Richard Price at the Newington Green Unitarian Church, Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by William Godwin (1798). Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (William Godwin) — collaborator for Mary Wollstonecraft “After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Rights of Man by Thomas Paine (1791). Rights of Man (Thomas Paine) — geography for Mary Wollstonecraft “Wollstonecraft's intellectual universe expanded during this time, not only from the reading that she did for her reviews but also from the company she kept: she attended Johnson's famous dinners and met the radical pamphleteer Thomas Pai…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Joseph Johnson. Joseph Johnson supported and published Wollstonecraft's early career. “She moved to London and, assisted by the liberal publisher Joseph Johnson , found a place to live and work to support herself” (Wikipedia)
• Evenings at Home by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1793). Evenings at Home (Anna Laetitia Barbauld) — peer for Mary Wollstonecraft (openlibrary.org)

Who Mary Wollstonecraft influenced

• Mary Shelley (1797). States Mary Shelley carried forward her mother Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist principles into her own life. (also via A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus) “Shelley continued to practise her mother's feminist principles by extending aid to women of whom society disapproved.” (Wikipedia)
• Jane Austen (1775). Original Stories from Real Life (Mary Wollstonecraft) — ghost for Jane Austen (via Original Stories from Real Life, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Pride and Prejudice) “Jane Austen never mentioned her by name, but several of her novels contain positive allusions to Wollstonecraft's work” (Wikipedia)
• Virginia Woolf (1882). Woolf praised Wollstonecraft's continuing influence and vitality. (also via A Room of One's Own) “By 1929 Woolf described Wollstonecraft—her writing, arguments, and "experiments in living"—as immortal: "she is alive and active, she argues and experiments, we hear her voice and trace her influence even now among the living"” (Wikipedia)
• Amartya Sen. Sen draws on Wollstonecraft's political philosophy in his own work. “Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen , the Indian economist and philosopher who first identified the missing women of Asia , draws repeatedly on Wollstonecraft as a political philosopher in The Idea of Justice” (Wikipedia)
• Robert Browning. Browning wrote a poem about Wollstonecraft and Fuseli. “resulted in poems such as "Wollstonecraft and Fuseli" by British poet Robert Browning” (Wikipedia)
• The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago (1979). Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party honors Wollstonecraft with a dedicated place setting. “The feminist artwork The Dinner Party , first exhibited in 1979, features a place setting for Wollstonecraft” (Wikipedia)
• Maria Edgeworth. Edgeworth based a satirical character on Wollstonecraft in her novel Belinda. “she was pilloried by such writers as Maria Edgeworth , who patterned the "freakish" Harriet Freke in Belinda (1801) after her” (Wikipedia)
• Caitlin Moran. Moran identifies herself partly as a Wollstonecraft figure. “British writer Caitlin Moran , author of the best-selling How to Be a Woman , described herself as "half Wollstonecraft" to the New Yorker” (Wikipedia)
• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (1818). Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (Mary Shelley) — legacy for Mary Wollstonecraft “She died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who became an accomplished writer and the author of Frankenstein.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929). A Room of One's Own (Virginia Woolf) — legacy for Mary Wollstonecraft “With the advent of the modern feminist movement, women as politically dissimilar from each other as Virginia Woolf and Emma Goldman embraced Wollstonecraft's life story.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813). Mellor traces Wollstonecraft's arguments into the characterization in Pride and Prejudice. (via A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) “In Pride and Prejudice , Mr. Wickham seems to be based upon the sort of man Wollstonecraft claimed that standing armies produce” (Wikipedia)
• Sense and Sensibility. Mellor connects Austen's Sense and Sensibility to Wollstonecraft's novel Mary. (via Mary: A Fiction) “The balance a woman must strike between feelings and reason in Sense and Sensibility follows what Wollstonecraft recommended in her novel Mary” (Wikipedia)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Browning's poem Aurora Leigh reflected Wollstonecraft's ideas on education. (via A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) “one such reader was Elizabeth Barrett Browning , who read Rights of Woman at age 12 and whose poem Aurora Leigh reflected Wollstonecraft's unwavering focus on education” (Wikipedia)
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali directly cites Wollstonecraft as an inspiration in her autobiography. (via A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) “cited the Rights of Woman in her autobiography Infidel and wrote that she was "inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering feminist thinker who told women they had the same ability to reason as men did and deserved the same rights"” (Wikipedia)
• Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Fawcett claimed Wollstonecraft as a foundational figure for suffrage. (via A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) “Millicent Garrett Fawcett , a suffragist and later president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies , wrote the introduction to the centenary edition (i.e. 1892) of the Rights of Woman ; it cleansed the memory of Wollstonecr…” (Wikipedia)
• The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill (1869). The Subjection of Women (John Stuart Mill) — legacy for Mary Wollstonecraft (openlibrary.org)
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Reading Wollstonecraft connected Stanton to feminist organizing efforts.
• Lucretia Mott. Reading Wollstonecraft connected Mott and Stanton and spurred the Seneca Falls Convention.