William Godwin

The son of a clergyman, William Godwin was educated at Hoxton academy; he was a dissenting minister before moving to London and taking up a career as a political writer and radical philosopher, sometimes publishing under the pseudonyms "Edwin Baldwin" and Theophilus Marcliffe." Godwin made his reputation with An Inquiry into Political Justice (1793) and the novel Caleb Williams (1794). Godwin also published a four-volume biography of Chaucer and a frank memoir of his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft. Percy Bysshe Shelley, who married their daughter, regarded Godwin as his philosophical mentor.

TEXT RECORDS:

1784Inkle and Yariko, a Poem, by James Beattie, L.L.D. 4to.

PUBLICATIONS:

An account of the seminary that will be opened ... at Epsom. 1783.
A defence of the Rockingham party. 1783.
History of the life of William Pitt. 1783.
The herald of literature. 1784.
Six sermons. 1784.
An enquiry concerning the principles of political justice. 1793, 1796.
The enquirer; reflections on education, manners, and literature. 1797.
Things as they are; or, the Adventures of Caleb Williams. 3 vols, 1794.
Memoirs of the author of A vindication [Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin]. 1798.
St Leon, a tale of the sixteenth century. 4 vols, 1799.
Antonio: a tragedy. 1800.
Thoughts occasioned by Dr. Parr's Spital sermon. 1801.
The life of Geoffrey Chaucer. 2 vols, 1803; 4 vols, 1804.
Fleetwood, or the new man of feeling. 1805.
Faulkener, a tragedy. 1807.
Essay on sepulchres. 1809.
The lives of Edward and John Phillips. 1809.
The letters of Verax, to the Morning Chronicle. 1815.
Of population ... being an answer to Mr. Malthus. 1820.
History of the Commonwealth of England. 4 vols, 1824-28.
Mandeville, a tale of the seventeenth century. 3 vols, 1817.
Letter of advice to a young American. 1818.
Cloudsly, a tale. 1830.
Thoughts on man. 1831.
Deloraine. 3 vols, 1833.
Lives of the necromancers. 1834.
Essays ... never before published. 1873.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
dissenter

Hoxton Academy
Dissenting academy

clergyman
book trade
essayist
novelist
dramatist

Monthly Mirror
The Monthly Magazine
English Review

Dr. John Aikin
Thomas Campbell
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
John Payne Collier
William Hazlitt
Thomas Holcroft
Leigh Hunt
John Keats
Charles Lamb
Sir James Mackintosh
Amelia Opie
Rev. David Rivers
Joseph Ritson
Mary Robinson
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Horace Smith
John Thelwall
John Horne Tooke

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "William Godwin" Monthly Mirror 19 (January-February 1805) 5-7, 85-93 [portrait]; Biographia Dramatica (1812); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); "An Estimate of the Literary Character of Mr. William Godwin" Monthly Magazine 45 (May 1818) 299-302; "Living Authors: Godwin: chiefly as a Writer of Novels" London Magazine 2 (August 1820) 163-69; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); William Hazlitt, "William Godwin" in Spirit of the Age (1825); A New Biographical Dictionary of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters (1825); "Mr. Godwin's Novels" Fraser's Magazine 2 (November 1830) 381-96; The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (16 November 1833) 774; William Maginn, "Gallery of Literary Characters: William Godwin, Esq." Fraser's Magazine 10 (October 1834) 463 [portrait]; W. B. Morgan, obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 5 (June 1836) 666-70; Thomas De Quincey, "Literary Reminiscences" (1837; in Works 1889-90); George Gilfillan, in Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845) [portrait]; Thomas Constable, in Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents (1873); Charles Kegan Paul, William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries, 2 vols (1876); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Margaret Oliphant, Literary History of England (1882); Maclise Gallery (1898); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Ford Keeler Brown, Life of William Godwin (1926); R. G. Grylls, William Godwin and his World (1953); Renwick, OHEL (1963); Burton Ralph Pollin, "Verse Satire on William Godwin in the Anti-Jacobin Period" Satire Newsletter 2 (1963) 31-40; A. N. L. Munby, Sale Catalogues of Libraries of Eminent Persons (1971-75); William St Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys: a Biography of a Family (1989).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for William Godwin:

1.	1794  Joseph Ritson to Sir Harris Nicolas, 1794; Letters of Joseph Ritson (1833) 2:57-58.
2.	1795  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Sonnets to Eminent Characters. No. IX. To William Godwin, Author of Political Justice" Morning Chronicle (10 January 1795).
3.	1796  William Wordsworth to William Mathews, 21 March 1796; Letters of the Wordsworth Family, ed. Knight (1907) 1:108.
4.	1796  Anna Seward to Mrs. M. Powys, 1 June 1796; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 4:211.
5.	1800  Charles Lamb to Mr. Manning, 18 February 1800; Letters, ed. Thomas Noon Talfourd (1837) 1:150.
6.	1800  Reginald Heber to John Thornton, 29 February 1800; in Life of Reginald Heber (1830) 1:13.
7.	1800  Thomas Green, 25 March 1800; Extracts from the Diary of a Lover of Literature (1810) 209.
8.	1801  Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in "The Vision of Liberty" Anti-Jacobin Review (1801) 518.
9.	1804  Robert Southey to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, February 1804; Life and Letters (1849-50) 2:266.
10.	1804  Walter Scott, in Review of Godwin, Life of Chaucer; Edinburgh Review 3 (January 1804) 450-52.
11.	1805  Robert Southey to John Rickman, July 1805; New Letters. ed. Curry (1965) 1:388-89.
12.	1811  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 30 March 1811; Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 1:169.
13.	1815  James Mackintosh, Review of Godwin, Lives of Edward and John Philips; Edinburgh Review 25 (October 1815) 485-501.
14.	1816  Sir James Mackintosh to Samuel Rogers, January 1816; Clayden, Rogers and his Contemporaries (1889) 1:409.
15.	1817  John Wilson Croker, Review of Godwin, Mandeville; Quarterly Review 18 (October 1817) 176-77.
16.	1818  Anonymous, in Review of Godwin, Mandeville; New England Galaxy [Boston] 1 (20 March 1818).
17.	1819  George Ticknor; Journal Entry, 1819; Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (1876) 1:294.
18.	1820  Percy Bysshe Shelley, in "Letter to Maria Gisborne" 1820; Works, ed. H. B. Forman (1882) 3:235.
19.	1820  John Scott, in "Living Authors: Godwin — chiefly as a Writer of Novels" London Magazine 2 (August 1820) 163.
20.	1822  James Harley, in The Press, or Literary Chit-Chat. A Satire (1822) 14 &n.
21.	1825  William Hazlitt, "William Godwin" The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits (1825) 31-58.
22.	1830  William Hazlitt, Review of Godwin, Cloudsley, a Tale; Edinburgh Review 51 (April 1830) 144-59.
23.	1832  Mary Shelley to John Murray, 4 May 1832; Smiles, A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir of John Murray (1891) 2:328-29.
24.	1833  Allan Cunningham, in "Literature of the Last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (November-December 1833) 774.
25.	1834  William Maginn, "Gallery of Literary Characters: William Godwin, Esq." Fraser's Magazine 10 (October 1834) 463.
26.	1837  Thomas Noon Talfourd, in Letters of Charles Lamb (1837) 1:121-23.
27.	1848  Horace Smith, in "A Graybeard's Gossip about his Literary Acquaintance" New Monthly Magazine 82 (March 1848) 338-39.
28.	1871  S. C. Hall, in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) 62-63.
29.	1877  Bryan Waller Procter, in Procter: An Autobiographical Fragment (1877) 202-3.
30.	1878  Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, in Recollections of Writers (1878) 36-37.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for William Godwin:

1.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
2.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 1:215-16.
3.	1812  Stephen Jones, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1812) 1:280-81.
4.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 131.
5.	1836  W. B. Morgan, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 5 (June 1836) 666-70.
6.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:560-62.
7.	1883  William Bates, after William Maginn; Maclise Gallery (1883; 1898) 270-78.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1797  Henry Fielding:   William Godwin, in "Of English Style" The Enquirer (1797) 462-63.
2.	1797  Samuel Richardson:   William Godwin, in "Of Choice in Reading" The Enquirer (1797) 134-35.
3.	1797  Tobias Smollett:   William Godwin, "Of English Style" The Enquirer (1797) 467.
4.	1797  Rev. Jonathan Swift:   William Godwin, in "Of English Style" The Enquirer (1797) 443.
5.	1797  Sir William Temple:   William Godwin, in "Of English Style" The Enquirer (1797) 419.
6.	1818  David Hume:   William Godwin, in Letter of Advice to a Young American on the Course of Studies (1818) 13.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1805  Joseph Ritson:   William Godwin, "Biographical Sketch of Ritson" in The Monthly Mirror (May 1805) 291-94.