George Ballard (biographer)

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George Ballard (* 1706 in Chipping Campden , Gloucestershire , † June 1755 in Oxford ) was an English antiquarian and biographer who achieved literary importance through his main work, Memoirs of British Ladies ( 1752 ), as this was the first time in the English-speaking world that a collective appreciation of Writers or supporters of literature has been published.

George Ballard: Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences . 1752

Life

George Ballard was born in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire in 1706. The self-taught who taught himself ancient language of the Anglo-Saxons in while he was working in a store that sold riding clothes. Here he caught the attention of Elizabeth Elstob , who taught Anglo-Saxon, through the mediation of Sarah Chapone, a local member of the Blue Stocking Movement . John Howe, 2nd Baron Chedworth and other local gentlemen then provided him with a grant of 60 pounds a year so that he could move to Oxford to use the Bodleian Library for his studies. Dr. Jenner hired him as an office worker at Magdalen College at the University of Oxford , where he subsequently worked as a university beadle on an administrative-ceremonial pedel post . Ballard also appeared as a collector and dealer of antiquarian works.

Ballard died at the age of 49 and the only publication he published in print was Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings, or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences . This large format work was published by subscription and was dedicated to Mrs. Talbot of Kineton , the wife of an Anglican cleric, whom Ballard had sponsored early on, and Mary Delany . The first woman he described in his book was Juliana of Norwich ; the last Constantia Grierson (1704 / 5–1732). In his foreword he regretted it very much when he had to exclude some writers, such as Lady Mary Wroth , from his collection for lack of biographical data.

The literary scholar Ruth Perry assumes that Ballard identified himself strongly with the female personalities he portrayed, as he had experienced social restrictions due to his origin as well as those women because of their gender. Therefore, he emphasized their intellectual achievements wherever he found them. In addition, in Margaret Ezell's opinion, Ballard developed, based on his own experience - i.e. the patronage of benevolent gentlemen and gentlewomen of the upper class - a sensory model of literary education, according to which training and authorship are a project goal of the upper and middle class, designed for the benefit of the writer and his circle around him, but not intended for the general public. Furthermore, virtue and humility are crucial for the success of women writers.

Ballard left a large collection of manuscripts and his insightful correspondence to the Bodleian Library. In his lively correspondence with his sponsor Elizabeth Elstob, he warned her not to accept a job under the dignity of a schoolmaster - such as a governess or the head of a school for the poor - despite her financial difficulties and poor health.

plant

  • George Ballard: Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences . Printed by W. Jackson, for the author, Oxford 1752. Digitized
  • Ruth Perry (Ed.): George Ballard - Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences . Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1985.

reception

From today's perspective, George Ballard's Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain with Biographium Faemineum (1766) and James Granger's A Biographical History of England (1769–1774) are among the few innovative historical works that use the method in English-language specialist literature of the 18th century reflect on how to portray the female character in biography . For example, Granger went from the highest social to the lowest, including his very last category, "Ladies, and others, of the female sex, according to their rank". Ballard, on the other hand, used his tried and tested antiquarian methods by collecting detailed information about the learned noble ladies since the 14th century and thus breaking the hagiographic traditions of the saints' legends, which considered women solely for the merits of their husbands. In his foreword Ballard formulated his goals as follows: "to inform us of those particulars in their lives and manners which best deserve our imitation, and to transmit to posterity even those peculiar ties which afford us no inconsiderable entertainment."

As the first source for the biographies and works of authors and literary supporters of the 18th century, Ballard's main work continues to be an important point of contact.

Contents of the Memoirs of British Ladies

This listing presents the names of the women whom Ballard portrayed in Memoirs of British Ladies . He arranged the 60 biographies in chronological order.

literature

  • SA Allibone: A critical dictionary of English literature . 1859-71.
  • George Ballard: Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain . Edited with an introduction by Ruth Perry. Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1985.
  • A. Chalmers: The general biographical dictionary . 1812-1817.
  • Arthur Charlett / Thomas Rawlins (eds.): Politics, religion and society in England, 1650–1750: the Ballard Collection of correspondence and papers in the Bodleian Library, Oxford . Harvester Microform, Brighton, Sussex 1982.
  • Ruth Perry: George Ballard's Biographies of Learned Ladies . In: Biography in the Eighteenth Century . Edited by JD Browning, Garland, New York 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Until the 19th century, only called Campden : s. John Gorton: A topographical dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland, compiled from local information, and the most recent and official authorities . Chapman and Hall, London 1833, p. 358.
  2. ↑ Patricia Demers: Women's Writing in English: Early Modern England . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2005, p. 8.
  3. ^ Alison Booth: How to make it as a woman: collective biographical history from Victoria to the present . University of Chicago Press, Chicago a. a. 2004, p. 349.
  4. ↑ On Elizabeth Elstob's life and work, see Introduction to: Ruth Perry (Ed.): George Ballard - Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences . Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1985, pp. 21-25.
  5. ↑ Gerda Lerner: The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to Eighteen-seventy . Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 1994, p. 230 .
  6. ↑ Josephine A. Roberts (Ed.): The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1985, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Ruth Perry: George Ballard's Biographies of Learned Ladies . In: Biography in the Eighteenth Century . Edited by JD Browning, Garland, New York 1980, p. 90.
  8. ↑ Margaret Ezell: Writing Women's Literary History . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1993, p. 87.
  9. ↑ See Linda Zionkowski: Men's Work: Gender, Class, and the Professionalization of Poetry, 1660–1784 . Palgrave, New York 2001, p. 250.
  10. ↑ See Peter John Croft, Margaret M. Smith (Eds.): Index of English literary manuscripts. Vol. 3, 1700-1800, P. 2, John Gay - Ambrose Philips, with a first-line index to parts 1 and 2 . Mansell / Bowker, London / New York 1989, p. 113.
  11. ↑ See: John Nichols, JB Nichols: Illustrations of the literary history of the eighteenth century. : Consisting of authentic memoirs and original letters of eminent persons; and intended as a sequel to the literary anecdotes . Vol. 4, Printed for the author, by Nichols, Son, and Bentley, London 1817-1858, p. 221 .
  12. ↑ Bridget Hill: Women Alone: ​​Spinsters in England, 1660-1850 . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2001, p. 89.
  13. ^ HB Nisbet, Claude Rawson (eds.): The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 4, The Eighteenth Century . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, p. 308.
  14. ↑ George Ballard: Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences . Printed by W. Jackson, for the author, Oxford 1752, SV
  15. ^ For example on Margaret Beaufort : Alan Hager (Ed.): Encyclopedia of British Writers, 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries . Facts On File, New York 2005, p. 26.
personal data
SURNAME Ballard, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer, historian and antiquarian
DATE OF BIRTH 1706
PLACE OF BIRTH Chipping Campden , Gloucestershire
DATE OF DEATH June 1755
Place of death Oxford