Eliza Fletcher's Private Authorship

This essay discusses the writing of Eliza Dawson Fletcher (1770–1858), a participant in the literary circles of early nineteenth-century Edinburgh. Though mainly remembered now, if at all, as a hostess and an observer of the scene, Fletcher was also a writer of poetry, verse drama, and autobiographical prose. While she published none of this material, she circulated it both in manuscript and, in one case, in a privately printed volume, among family and friends. Fletcher demonstrates the possibility, even into the early nineteenth century, of building a literary reputation and career at the margins of manuscript and print.