Memoirs of the Life of Elizabeth Carter ...

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A very good copy, and a lovely gift. Inscribed to the front pastedown of both volumes: “Elizabeth Cook to Indiana Jenkins August 19, 1832.” Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806) - “the most learned lady in England during the eighteenth century” - was a formidable figure in England. An accomplished poet and translator, she was also a member of the Bluestocking Circle. She was extremely good friends with Samuel Johnson, who considered her among the best Greek scholars he knew, and with Elizabeth Montagu (of the Sandwich family) and their correspondence is held at Swansea University. This book contains her biography plus a new collection of her poems and essays. Elizabeth Cook (1742-1835) married Captain James Cook in 1762 and was his widow for half a century. She kept in close touch with her Yorkshire in-laws and this gift demonstrates that her interest was more than perfunctory. Indiana Jenkins (née Fleck 1805-1871) is named in Elizabeth Cook’s will. Her father, the sailor Thomas Henry Fleck (1775-1817) was Cook’s nephew, making her Cook’s grand niece. She was bequeathed a sum of money as well as the contents of Elizabeth Cook’s spare bedroom. Dorr, P., “Elizabeth Carter” in Schlueter, P., Encyclopedia of British Women Writers (Michigan, 1999); https://www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-life/captain-cook-personally/elizabeth-cook-her-will-and-her-legatees-part-1

• Year: 1808

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