Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (born June 20, 1743, Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, Eng.—died March 9, 1825, Stoke Newington, near London) was a British writer, poet, and editor whose best writings are on political and social themes. Her poetry belongs essentially in the tradition of 18th-century meditative verse.

The only daughter of John Aikin, she lived from the age of 15 to 30 in Warrington, Lancashire, where her father taught at a Nonconformist Protestant academy. There she was encouraged by her father’s friends and colleagues to pursue her education and literary talents. In 1774 she married Rochemont Barbauld, a French Protestant clergyman. Although she is probably best known for her hymn “Life! I Know Not What Thou Art,” her most important poems included “Corsica” (1768) and “The Invitation” (1773). She edited William Collins’ Poetical Works (1794) as well as The British Novelists, 50 vol. (1810).