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 their own? And why did the eternal fame they expected elude them in the end? In today’s episode, meet the sister novelists whose lives were every bit as dramatic as the historical novels they wrote.

Olivia interviews 2018 Guggenheim Fellow Devoney Looser, author of the award-winning book The Making of Jane Austen and prominent Jane Austen scholar.

All photos courtesy of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Collection at The New York Public Library Archives unless otherwise attributed.

Black and white etching portrait of a woman in a regency dress, lace jacket and with elaborate front-curls hairstyle — Jane Porter
from the Ladies’ Monthly

Jane Porter
from her novel “The Pastor’s Fireside”

Mrs S. C. Hall [Anna Maria Hall]
‘Memories of Miss Jane Porter’
Art Journal 7 (1850): 221.
by permission of Devoney Looser

Illustration from the 1827 edition of Jane Porter’s *The Scottish Chiefs*

“Jane Porter, the Authoress”
Fraser’s Magazine 11 (1835): 404.
by permission of Devoney Looser

The opening paragraph of Anna Maria Porter’s novel *The Hungarian Brothers*
public domain

“Crossed” letter from Robert Ker Porter to Anna Maria Porter, 1806
by permission of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas

Robert Ker Porter
brother of the Misses Porter and court painter to Tsar Alexander I of Russia

Panoramic view of Bristol Cathedral from College Green
Creative Commons license

The Porter family tomb in Bristol Cathedral
photo in public domain

Devoney Looser is the author of the award-winning book The Making of Jane Austen (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). She was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for her work on a book about the Porter Sisters. She is Professor of English at Arizona State University and the author or editor of six other books on literature by women. Her recent writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, Salon, The TLS, and Entertainment Weekly, and she’s had the pleasure of talking about Austen on CNN. Looser has played roller derby as Stone Cold Jane Austen and is on Twitter @devoneylooser and @Making_Jane