Hester Chapone, née Mulso (1727–1801), writer of conduct books for women, was born on 27 October 1727 at Twywell, Northamptonshire,
The daughter of Thomas Mulso (1695–1763), a gentleman farmer, and his wife (d. 1747/8), a daughter of Colonel Thomas, Hester wrote a romance at the age of nine, 'The Loves of Amoret and Melissa', which earned her mother's disapproval. She was educated more thoroughly than most girls in that period, learning French, Italian and Latin, and began writing regularly and corresponding with other writers at the age of 18. Her earliest published works were four brief pieces of Samuel Johnson's journal The Rambler in 1750. She was married in 1760 to the solicitor John Chapone (c.1728–1761), who was the son of an earlier moral writer, Sarah Chapone (1699-1764), but soon widowed. Hester Chapone was associated with the learned ladies or Bluestockings who gathered around Elizabeth Montagu, and was the author of Letters on the Improvement of the Mind and Miscellanies.
Read more about Hester Chapone: Conduct Books, Cultural Influence
Famous quotes containing the word hester:
“It was almost two years ago, while awaiting the imminent birth of my second child, that I decided to start working part-time. This would have been unthinkable to me when I was younger. At twenty-five I should have worn a big red A on my chest; it would have stood for ambition, an ambition so brazen and burning that it would have reduced Hester Prynne’s transgression to pale pink.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)