In 1668 Hannah Wolley published her first (and, it turns out, only) non-recipe book: A Guide to Ladies and Gentlewomen. This book survives in but one physical copy (in the Folger Shakespeare Library), and its rediscovery in their collection eight years ago brought to light a text which marks a radical departure from the prevailing tone and focus of contemporary conduct books marketed for women; as well as from Wolley's previous two works, which focused on cookery. The text is also the missing clue in a mystery surrounding a later publication, The Gentlewomen's Companion (1673), which is often attributed to Wolley, but which she vehemently denied as her own. In this paper I will explore what was so innovative about this text, its significance within Wolley's own outputs and the wider publishing landscape of Restoration England, as well as the circumstances which led to its being pirated and packaged in 1673.
Sara Pennell is associate professor of early modern British history at the University of Greenwich. She has written extensively on food and foodways, recipes, domestic knowledge and material culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The research behind this paper is part of a larger project on Hannah Wolley and the middling working woman in seventeenth-century England. Her most recent publication is ‘Gender, commerce and the Restoration book trade; mapping the bookscape of Hannah Wolley’s The Ladies Directory (1661)’, Book History, 27:1 (2024).
- Speaker
- Dr Sara Pannell
- Hosted by
- CEMS
- Venue
- Taylor A36 and online