Wordsworth, Dorothy ___ 1771-1855 ___ British ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Dorothy was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, the third of five children, one of whom was William. Her mother died when Dorothy was only six, and her father, a lawyer, died when she was 12. Aged 15 she was removed from boarding school, and sent to live with relations, first in Penrith and then at Forncett Rectory, Norfolk. She began writing in her mid-20s, when she shared a house in Dorset with William. They moved to Afoxden in Somerset, and developed a friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, travelling with him in Germany during the late 1790s. From 1799, Dorothy and William settled at Dove Cottage, in Grasmere. In 1802, Mary Hutchinson moved to Dove Cottage also, as William's wife. About ten years later Dorothy moved to Rydal, where she lived for the rest of her life; but her last 20 years were plagued by physical and mental illness. Her journals, beautifully written in their own right, also provide a unique insight into the life of one of Britain's greatest poets. Academics speculate that William Wordsworth was not only inspired by his sister, but borrowed from her writing.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1798-1828 ___ domestic literary travel people nature creativity

WEB TEXT LINKS
several extracts
an extract
two extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The Wordsworth Trust

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth
The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals
 

May 2005, August 2008
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.