ABSTRACT
The popularity of Rights of Woman (ROW) grew by word of mouth in America. Aaron Burr recommended it to his wife; Mary Moody Emerson, to the sister-in-law of Ralph Waldo Emerson; and Elizabeth Hewson, to her friend. John Adams claimed that his wife was a “disciple” of Wollstonecraft. Several well-established writers, such as Charles Brockden Brown and Annis Boudinot Stockton, endorsed ROW. Furthermore, there were more copies of Wollstonecraft’s work in America’s private libraries than were of Paine’s Rights of Man. Besides noting the popularity of ROW in America, this chapter tracks Wollstonecraft’s influence on writers who came after her. Mary Hays wrote her six-volume set of Female Biography (1803), only because she followed Wollstonecraft’s practice of focusing on women and emphasizing what should be important to them instead of fashion and marriage, such as knowledge and reasoning. The chapter also considers the work of Catharine Macaulay, discussed in ROW. Additionally, it identifies Wollstonecraft’s fingerprints in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s The Princess (1849 [1847]), Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s writing of Aurora Leigh (1856), John Stuart Mill’s “Subjection of Women” (1851), Mary Shelley’s works, and the novels of Clara Balfour (1808–78). The titles of over 50 poems and 20 novels that mention or portray Wollstonecraft will also be provided.
