Record Number: 12590

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, on the anonymity of her first publication ("Stories on the Lord's Prayer", serialised in "The Cottager's Monthly Visitor" in 1840): 'I did not give my name, and no one knew anything about it, except my mother and sisters. I have often vexed myself since -- thinking that I did not tell my father -- but I had a dread of any person talking to me about my writing, and I knew that if he was pleased he would not be able to keep himself from telling me so. I was reading the little book aloud to my mother one evening when he was in the room, and not being well was lying on the sofa half asleep, as I thought; but he listened, and I think was interested, for he asked me what I was reading. I forget exactly what answer I made, but it certainly was not that I was reading anything of my own, and so I lost the opportunity of giving him pleasure.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1840 and 31 Dec 1840

Country:

Great Britain

Time

evening

Place:

city: Newport
county: Isle of Wight
specific address: High Street

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

19 Feb 1815

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

Great Britain

Country of Experience:

Great Britain

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

Thomas Sewell (reader's father) Jane Sewell (reader's mother)

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Title:

Stories on the Lord's Prayer

Genre:

Other religious, Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Unknown

Publication Details

1840

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

12590

Source:

Print

Author:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Editor:

Eleanor L. Sewell

Title:

The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1908

Vol:

n/a

Page:

66-67

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Elizabeth Missing Sewell, Eleanor L. Sewell (ed.), The Autobiography of Elizabeth Missing Sewell (London, 1908), p. 66-67, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=12590, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

Not clear whether Sewell reading the version of her work serialised(with slight alterations to 'expressions about baptism') in "The Cottager's Monthly Visitor", or the reprint, which gave the stories in their original form, and which appeared (apparently as a book) 'soon after', its publication having been arranged by Sewell's brother William (see p.66 in source).