The Celebrated Elizabeth Smith: Crafting Genius and Transatlantic Fame in the Romantic Era

Elizabeth Smith was a learned British woman born in 1776 who gained transnational fame posthumously for her intellectual accomplishments. This biography by Lucia McMahon reconstructs Smith's life, revealing her transatlantic fame and the cultural reactions to her aspirations. McMahon argues that Smith's achievements were emblematic of the age in which she lived and asks how many seemingly exceptional women must be uncovered in the historical record.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 362 pages
Publication date: 21 October 2022
Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Elizabeth Smith, a learned British woman born in the year 1776, achieved transnational fame posthumously for her extensive intellectual accomplishments, encompassing astronomy, botany, history, poetry, and language studies. As she navigated her place in the world, Smith made a self-conscious decision to keep her many talents hidden from disapproving critics. Therefore, her rise to fame began only in 1808, when her posthumous memoir appeared.

In this elegantly written biography, Lucia McMahon reconstructs the places and social constellations that enabled Smith's learning and adventures in England, Wales, and Ireland, and traces her transatlantic fame and literary afterlife across Britain and the United States. Through re-telling Elizabeth Smith's fascinating life story and retracing her posthumous transatlantic fame, McMahon reveals a larger narrative about women's efforts to enact learned and fulfilling lives, and the cultural reactions such aspirations inspired in the early nineteenth century.

Although Smith was cast as exceptional by her contemporaries and modern scholars alike, McMahon argues that her scholarly achievements, travel explorations, and posthumous fame were all emblematic of the age in which she lived. Offering insights into Romanticism, picturesque tourism, celebrity culture, and women's literary productions, McMahon asks the provocative question, "How many seemingly exceptional women must we uncover in the historical record before we are no longer surprised?"

Weight: 556g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780813947860