In Nature's Name An Anthology of Women's Writing and Illustration 1780- 1930

About this book

From the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, hundreds of British women wrote about and drew from nature. Some – like the beloved children's author Beatrix Potter, who produced natural history about hedgehogs as well as fiction about rabbits – are still familiar today. But others have all but disappeared from view. Barbara Gates recovers these lost works and prints them alongside little-known pieces by more famous authors, like Potter's field notes on hedgehogs, reminding us of better known stories that help set the others in context.

The works contained in In Nature's Name are as varied as the women who produced them. They include passionate essays on the protection of animals, vivid accounts of travel and adventure from the English seashore to the Indian Alps, poetry and fiction, and marvelous tales of nature for children. Special features of In Nature's Name include a detailed chronology placing each selection in its historical and literary context; biographical sketches of each author's life and works; a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature; and over sixty illustrations.

An ideal introduction to women's powerful and diverse responses to the natural world, In Nature's Name will be treasured by anyone interested in natural history, women, or Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface

PRELUDE

SECTION ONE: SPEAKING OUT
Introduction

SECTION TWO: PROTECTING
Introduction
Sensitivity to Other Species
The Horrors of Sport
Antivivisection
Conservation: Birds
Conservation: The Land and Its Plants

SECTION THREE: DOMESTICATING
Introduction
Menageries and Animal Stories
Farming and Gardsening
Plants and Interiors

SECTION FOUR: ADVENTURING
Introduction
For Science
For Sport

SECTION FIVE: APPRECIATING
Introduction
Romanticism
Aestheticism
The Color of Life

SECTION SIX: POPULARIZING SCINECE
Introduction
Kinds of Science Popularization
Women and Darwin

SECTION SEVEN: AMATEURS OR PROFESSIONALS?
Introduction
Who/What Was a Professional?
Seaweeds, Zoophytes, and Women
Professionals

POSTLUDE
Chronology
Biographical Sketches
For Further Reading

Customer Reviews

Biography

Barbara T. Gates is Alumni Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Delaware. She is the author of Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories and Kindred Nature: Victorian and Edwardian Women Embrace the Living World, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press. In 2000, she was awarded the Founders' Distinguished Senior Scholar Award by the American Association of University Women.