Ann Thicknesse

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Standard Name: Thicknesse, Ann
Birth Name: Ann Ford
AT was, it seems, an opportunistic writer. Already accustomed to earning money from publicly performing music, she published five titles in four decades from 1761 to 1800: a self-justifying scandal memoir, two music manuals, a biographical dictionary and an autobiographical novel.
Photograph of a painting of Ann Thicknesse by Thomas Gainsborough, 1760, seated against the backdrop of a red curtain, with her arm resting on a small wooden table piled with books and sheet music. She is wearing a long voluptuous silver dress with a pattern of swirls stitched onto it, lace trimmed sleeves, and soft yellow bows tied around the sleeves and waist. She has dark ribbons tied around her neck and wrist, dark circular earrings, and gold coloured shoes with small heals and buckles. She has a mando

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Reception Elizabeth Carter
Ann Thicknesse dedicated to Carter the first version of her Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France, 1778, saying she wanted to head a work which celebrated French talent with...
Textual Features Mary Matilda Betham
MMB also has strong coverage of writers, scholars, and activists, like Anne Askew , Mary Astell (whose uncle she credits with having generously tutored her), and Ann Bacon . She seems to have excluded the...
Textual Features Mary Hays
If Female Biography is not the first biographical dictionary in English compiled by a woman, it is undoubtedly superior to Ann Thicknesse 's Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France...

Timeline

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Texts

Thicknesse, Ann. A Letter from Miss F—d. 1761.
Thicknesse, Ann. A Letter from Miss F—d. The second edition, 1761.
Thicknesse, Ann. Instructions for Playing on the Musical Glasses.
Thicknesse, Ann. Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France. J. Dodsley, E. and C. Dilly, R. Cruttwell, and T. Shrimpton, 1778.
Thicknesse, Ann. Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France. Dodsley and W. Brown, 1780, 3 vols.
Thicknesse, Ann. The School for Fashion. Reynell, Debrett and Fores, and Robinson, 1800, 2 vols.