Frances Wright

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Standard Name: Wright, Frances
Birth Name: Frances Wright
Married Name: Frances D'Arusmont
Pseudonym: An Englishwoman
Pseudonym: A Woman
FW was a writer in many genres: her œuvre includes a tragedy and a philosophical essay, but is dominated by political and feminist social critique, much of it taking the apparently ephemeral forms of lectures and letters. John Stuart Mill called her one of the most important women of her day
qtd. in
Eckhardt, Celia Morris. Fanny Wright. Harvard University Press, 1984.
1
(that is, the earlier nineteenth century). The fact that much of her career was pursued in the United States means that she is often critically considered in the context of American literature and culture.
Portrait of Frances Wright by Henry Inman, 1824. She is looking to the left, plainly dressed in black with a red and white scarves, her brown, curly, shoulder-length hair parted in the middle.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Family and Intimate relationships Margaret Fuller
Her father, Timothy Fuller , was also a teacher, then a lawyer and politician. A graduate of Harvard University , he served in both the Massachusetts senate and house of representatives, and he became a...
Fictionalization Frances Trollope
FT was one of the most popular authors of her day, and certainly one of its most controversial female authors, in many respects unrivalled in her experiments with female characterization and the range of social...
Friends, Associates Anna Wheeler
She nevertheless became an important link between French and English socialists, a friend not only of Fourier, but also of Flora Tristan , Frances Wright , Desirée Veret , and Jeanne Victoire .
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Friends, Associates Mary Shelley
Another important friend of MS was the radical Frances Wright , who corresponded with her from 1827, and also put her in touch with Robert Owen's son Robert Dale Owen .
Shelley, Mary. “Introduction”. Lodore, edited by Lisa Vargo, Broadview, 1997, pp. 9-45.
44
Vargo, Lisa. “Lodore and the Novel of Society”. Womens Writing, Vol.
6
, No. 3, 1999, pp. 425-40.
431
The two...
Friends, Associates Frances Trollope
While in France, FT also met the young Frances Wright , a controversial figure who later played a significant role in her life.
Heineman, Helen. Mrs. Trollope: The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century. Ohio University Press, 1979.
30-2
Wright was known for abolitionist sentiments developed during her travels...
Friends, Associates Frances Trollope
Her disillusionment with Nashoba further dampened FT 's original fascination with Fanny Wright 's unique sensibilities, a process already begun on the journey over from England. In a letter written the following year, FT
Friends, Associates Frances Trollope
Further, while as a wealthy heiress the young Fanny had rejected all the extravagances and even the simple pleasures of an English moneyed lifestyle, FT found the reality of a sparse American existence difficult. She...
Friends, Associates Frances Trollope
Though their friendship was short-lived, critic Susan Kissel remarks on the similarities between FT and Frances Wright : while they differed in their manners, sensibilities, politics, and approaches, both publicly denounced slavery, the mistreatment of...
Friends, Associates Eliza Fletcher
Hamilton, herself a conservative, set about de-demonizing EF 's political reputation. She had good success in persuading her friends that Mrs Fletcher was not the ferocious Democrat she had been represented, and that she neither...
Leisure and Society Frances Trollope
Though FT had been a popular person in the places where she had lived in England, she did not fare as well with the American elite. Heineman suggests that the combination of her highly visible...
politics Frances Trollope
Mary Russell Mitford later recalled that FTused to be such a Radical that her house in London was a perfect emporium of escaped state criminals. I remember asking her at one of her parties...
politics Lydia Maria Child
LMC 's feminist ideas, though foreshadowed in her adolescent encounter with Milton, were slow to develop. When Frances Wright visited Boston in summer 1829 and gave a public lecture about women's rights, Child not only...
politics Caroline Frances Cornwallis
The Eclectic Magazine once described her brand of feminism as less flighty than that of Frances Wright and less senselessly radical than that of Harriet Martineau (thus revealing a somewhat odd opinion of those two...
Reception Frances Trollope
FT 's years of literary success were marked by tragedy: she lost two of her children to consumption, and eventually lost a third.
Nadel, Ira Bruce, and William E. Fredeman, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 21. Gale Research, 1983.
21: 324
Heineman, Helen. Mrs. Trollope: The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century. Ohio University Press, 1979.
135
However, her writing brought her into a supportive network...
Residence Frances Trollope
Frances Eleanor writes of FT 's determination to fix the family's financial situation by eventually having all the Trollopes move to Cincinnati, where they planned to sell imported goods and perhaps establish a market...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Wright, Frances. A Course of Popular Lectures. Office of the Free Enquirer, 1829.
Wright, Frances. A Few Days in Athens. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822.
Wright, Frances. Altorf. M. Carey, 1819.
Wright, Frances, and Robert Dale Owen. An Address to the Industrious Classes. Office of the Free Enquirer, 1830.
Wright, Frances. Biography, Notes and Political Letters. Third edition, C. N. Baldwin, 1830.
Wright, Frances. Life, Letters and Lectures, 1834/1844. Arno, 1972.
Wright, Frances, editor. The Free Enquirer. Office of the Free Enquirer.
Wright, Frances. Views of Society and Manners in America. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821.