Helen Maria Williams

Helen Maria Williams, born in London, was raised by her mother in Berwick-on-Tweed. In 1782 she returned to London to publish Edwin and Eltruda, making literary acquaintances through Elizabeth Montagu's salon. She traveled to France in 1790, where for many years she chronicled the French Revolution in letters published in England. Her republican views alienated many former admirers, and Williams, who pursued a career as a woman of letters in Paris, Switzerland, and Amsterdam, never returned.

TEXT RECORDS:

1783An Ode on the Peace.

PUBLICATIONS:

Edwin and Eltruda. A legendary tale. 1782.
An ode on the peace. 1783.
Peru, a poem. In six cantos. 1784.
Poems. 2 vols, 1786.
A poem on the bill lately passed for regulating the slave trade. 1788.
A farewell, for two years, to England. A poem. 1791.
Letters on the French Revolution, written in France, in the summer of 1790. 1791.
Letters from France: containing many new anecdotes relative to the French Revolution. 1792.
Letters containing a sketch of the politics of France. 1795.
A tour in Switzerland. 2 vols, 1798.
Sketches of the state of manners and opinions in the French Republic in a series of letters. 3 vols, 1801.
The history of Perourou [trans. Williams]. 1801.
The political and confidential correspondence of Lewis the sixteenth. 3 vols, 1803.
Verses addressed to two nephews. 1809.
Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the new continent [Humbold, trans. Williams]. 7 vols, 1814-29.
Researches concerning the institutions and moments of the ancient inhabitants of America [Humbold, trans. Williams]. 2 vols, 1814.
A narrative of the events in France from March 1815. 1815.
On the late persecution of the Protestants in the south of France. 1816.
The leper of the city of Aoste [J. de Maistre, trans. Williams]. 1817.
The charter; lines addressed to her nephew. 1819.
Letters on the events in France since the restoration in 1815. 1819.
Poems on various subjects. 1823.
Souvenirs de la revolution francaise. 1827.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Dissenter

privately educated

woman writer
poet
novelist
translator

The Morning Chronicle
Lady's Monthly Museum

Robert Burns
Samuel Rogers
Anna Seward

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); James Boswell, in Life of Johnson (1791) ed. G. B. Hill (1791); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Miss Helen Maria Williams" Ladies' Monthly Museum S3 3 (January 1816) 1-5 [portrait]; "Original Letters of Robert Burns and Miss Williams" New Monthly Magazine 10 (October 1818) 227-29; Alexander Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses (1827); obituary in Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature NS 2 (February 1828) 136-37; obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 98 (April, May 1828) 373, 386; Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record (1855); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature 3rd ed. (1876); J. E. Alger, in Englishmen in the French Revolution (1889); Frederic Rowton, Female Poets of Great Britain (1853); Todd, Dictionary of Women Writers (1987); Lonsdale, Eighteenth-Century Women Poets (1989); Deborah Kennedy, Helen Maria Williams and the Age of Revolution (2002).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Helen Maria Williams:

1.	1782  Charlotte Anne Burney, 1782; The Early Diary of Frances Burney (1889) 2:302.
2.	1783  William Hayley, "From Mr. H—y—y, to Miss W—ll—ms, upon her wishing to see his House" Public Advertiser (18 July 1783).
3.	1784  Samuel Johnson, 1784; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); ed. G. B. Hill (1791) 4:325-26.
4.	1784  Eliza, "To Miss Helen Maria Williams: on her Poem of Perus" Gentleman's Magazine 54 (July 1784) 532.
5.	1784  Anna Seward, "Sonnet to Miss Williams, on her Epic Poem, Peru" Morning Post and Daily Advertiser (30 September 1784).
6.	1786  W. Upton, "To Miss Helen Maria Williams, Authoress of Peru, a Poem" Public Advertiser (24 March 1786).
7.	1786  E., "Sonnet to Miss Helen Maria Williams, on her Poem of Peru" Gentleman's Magazine (June 1786) 513.
8.	1787  Axiologus, "Sonnet on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams weep at a Tale of Distress" European Magazine 11 (March 1787) 202.
9.	1787  J. B—o, "Sonnet to Miss Helena-Maria Williams" European Magazine 12 (August 1787) 144.
10.	1787  Anna Seward to Helen Maria Williams, 25 December 1787; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 1:390-99.
11.	1789  Paris, "Advice to Miss Helen Williams, on her Poem on the Slave Trade" General Evening Post (14 February 1789).
12.	1790  Anonymous, "To Miss Helen Maria Williams, on reading her Novel of Julia" Public Advertiser (3 April 1790).
13.	1790 ca.  George Hardinge, "To Miss Williams; addressed by her grateful Admirer and Friend, whose Opinion she consulted upon her Ode To Poesy" 1790 ca.; Hardinge, Miscellaneous Works (1818) 2:98-99.
14.	1790  E. J., "On reading Letters written from France in the Summer of 1790" European Magazine 18 (December 1790) 472.
15.	1790  Anonymous, "To Miss Helen Maria Williams, on reading her Novel of Julia" Gentleman's Magazine 60 (April 1790) 355.
16.	1791  E. J., "On reading Letters written from France, by Helen Maria Williams" Public Advertiser (12 January 1792).
17.	1791  Belinda, "Verses, to Miss Helen Maria Williams" Massachusetts Magazine or Monthly Museum 3 (April 1791) 245.
18.	1793  Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Montagu, 1 November 1793; Letters to Mrs. Montagu, ed. Montagu Pennington (1817) 3:339-40.
19.	1793  Anna Seward to Helen Maria Williams, 17 January 1793; Letters, ed. Scott (1811) 3:202-09.
20.	1794  Essex, "To Miss Williams, on the perusal of her animating Letters on the Cause of Liberty" Massachusetts Magazine or Monthly Museum 6 (February 1794) 113.
21.	1796  Anonymous, "Sonnet to Miss Helen Maria Williams" New-York Weekly Magazine 2 (30 November 1796) 176.
22.	1800  Richard Polwhele, in "The Visitation of the Poets" 1800; Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (1821) 2:50.
23.	1801  Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in "The Vision of Liberty" Anti-Jacobin Review 9 (Appendix, 1801) 519.
24.	1801  Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 81 & n.
25.	1803  Francis William Blagdon, in Introduction to Flowers of Literature for 1801 and 1802 (1803) unpag.
26.	1815  Isaac D'Israeli to John Murray, 1815; Smiles, A Publisher and his Friends: Memoir of John Murray (1891) 1:280.
27.	1822  James Harley, in The Press, or Literary Chit-Chat. A Satire (1822) 78 &n.
28.	1855  Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record; or, Sketches of all Distinguished Women (1852; 1855) 553-54.
29.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 262.
30.	1887  P. W. Clayden, in The Early Life of Samuel Rogers (1887) 76-78.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Helen Maria Williams:

1.	1788  Anonymous, in Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788).
2.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:387-88.
3.	1816  Anonymous, in Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) 448-49.
4.	1816  Anonymous, "Miss Helen Maria Williams" Ladies' Monthly Museum S3 3 (January 1816) 1-5.
5.	1828  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 98 (April, May 1828) 373, 386.
6.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876; 1879) 5:318-19.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1782  Thomas Chatterton:   Helen Maria Williams, "Sonnet to Expression" Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser (17 September 1782).
2.	1783  William Hayley:   Helen Maria Williams, in An Ode on the Peace (1783) 16-17.
3.	1783  Elizabeth Montagu:   Helen Maria Williams, in An Ode on the Peace (1783) 19.
4.	1783  Anna Seward:   Helen Maria Williams, in An Ode on the Peace (1783) 7.
5.	1787  Robert Burns:   Helen Maria Wiliams to Robert Burns, 20 June 1787; Edinburgh Magazine NS 1 (September 1817) 109.
6.	1790  Thomas Gray:   Helen Maria Wiliams, "Characters of English Poets: Gray" Universal Magazine 87 (November 1790) 257.
7.	1790  John Milton:   Helen Maria Wiliams, "Characters of English Poets: Milton" Universal Magazine 87 (November 1790) 257.
8.	1790  Alexander Pope:   Helen Maria Wiliams, "Characters of English Poets: Pope" Universal Magazine 87 (November 1790) 257.
9.	1790  James Thomson:   Helen Maria Wiliams, "Characters of English Poets: Thomson" Universal Magazine 87 (November 1790) 257.
10.	1791  Robert Burns:   Helen Maria Williams, "Sonnet, on reading the Poem upon the Mountain-Daisy, by Mr. Burns" Poems (1791) 1:56-57.