Category: England

THE SISTERS Jane and Anna Maria Porter

Sisters Jane and Anna Maria Porter were wildly popular writers–among the most widely-read writers in Regency England. (Yes, more popular than Jane Austen!) Their novels were on every British bookshelf, their poetry was popular and acclaimed, and Jane Porter’s historical novel The Scottish Chiefs would retain its popularity for nearly 150 years. So how did these bestselling icons of British literature end up nearly penniless and living as “professional houseguests” without a home to call …

18th century / 19th century / England / Europe / Writers

THE DISAPPEARING WOMAN Adelaide Herrmann

Adelaide Herrmann ruled the stage for fifty years as one the brightest stars of the Golden Age of Magic. After the death of her husband, renowned magician Herrmann the Great, Adelaide took center stage and toured for thirty years as one of the most famous magicians in the world. She was more well-known than her contemporary Houdini, and she continued performing until her death at age seventy-nine, when she was inexplicably forgotten for nearly a …

19th century / 20th century / England / Europe / Performers / Transcripts / United States

THE PHILOSOPHER Margaret Cavendish

Four hundred years ago, Margaret Cavendish dared to contemplate the biggest philosophical questions of her day. Brilliant and bold, she wrote 21 books despite being dismissed or mocked by the almost entirely male intellectual community. A famously eccentric dresser, she and her husband hosted high-society parties at their fantastical castle, but she was also paralyzed by bashfulness and dreaded talking to people. She hoped that her intellectual works would lead to eternal fame, but she …

17th century / England / Europe / Philosophy / Writers

THE SAINT Margaret Clitherow

Margaret Clitherow’s life – and death – were shaped by the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation in Elizabethan (16th century) England. A devoted Catholic in a time and place where Catholicism was illegal, she played a powerful role in a kind of “spy” network secretly harboring Catholic priests in the city of York. When a young boy living in her household exposed her secrets, she was imprisoned and then executed by the gruesome method …

16th century / England / Europe / Religion