Augusta Webster (30 January 1837 – 5 September 1894) born in

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

, Dorset as Julia Augusta Davies, was an English poet, dramatist, essayist, and translator.

Biography

Augusta was the daughter of Vice-admiral George Davies and Julia Hume, she spent her younger years on board the ship he was stationed, the ''Griper.'' She studied Greek at home, taking a particular interest in Greek drama, and went on to study at the Cambridge School of Art. She published her first volume of poetry in 1860 under the pen name Cecil Homes. In 1863, she married Thomas Webster, a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. They had a daughter, Augusta Georgiana, who married Reverend George Theobald Bourke, a younger son of the

Joseph Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo Joseph Deane Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo (; ; 1736 – 20 August 1794) was an Irish peer and cleric who held several high offices in the Church of Ireland including Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1772–82) and Archbishop of Tuam (1782–94). Fam ...

. Much of Webster's writing explored the condition of women, and she was a strong advocate of women's right to vote, working for the London branch of the National Committee for Women's Suffrage. She was the first female writer to hold elective office, having been elected to the

London School Board The School Board for London, commonly known as the London School Board (LSB), was an institution of local government and the first directly elected body covering the whole of London. The Elementary Education Act 1870 was the first to provide for ...

in 1879 and 1885. In 1885 she travelled to Italy in an attempt to improve her failing health. She died on 5 September 1894, aged 57. During her lifetime her writing was acclaimed and she was considered by some the successor to

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...

. After her death, however, her reputation quickly declined. Since the mid-1990s she has gained increasing critical attention from scholars such as

Isobel Armstrong Isobel Armstrong, (born 1937) is a British academic. She is professor emerita of English at Birkbeck, University of London and a senior research fellow of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London. She is a fellow of the Br ...

, Angela Leighton, and Christine Sutphin. Her best-known poems include three long dramatic monologues spoken by women: ''A Castaway'', '' Circe'', and ''The Happiest Girl In The World'', as well as a posthumously published sonnet-sequence, "Mother and Daughter". Grave of Augusta Webster in Highgate Cemetery

Grave of Augusta Webster in Highgate Cemetery

She died on the 5th September 1894 and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. Her grave (plot no.8187), which is situated above the cuttings catacombs, has suffered badly from tree roots.

Literary works

Poetry * ''Blanche Lisle: And Other Poems.'' 1860 * ''Lilian Gray.'' 1864 * ''Dramatic Studies.'' 1866 * ''A Woman Sold and Other Poems.'' 1867 * ''Portraits'' 1870 * ''A Book of Rhyme'' 1881 * ''Mother and Daughter'' 1895 Translations into verse * ''Prometheus Bound'' 1866 * ''Medea'' 1868 * ''Yu-Pe-Ya's Lute. A Chinese Tale in English Verse.'' 1874 Plays * ''The Auspicious Day'' 1874 * ''Disguises'' 1879 * ''In a Day'' 1882 * ''The Sentence'' 1887 Novels * ''Lesley's Guardians'' 1864 *''Daffodil and the Croaxaxicans: A Romance of History'' 1884 Essays * ''A Housewife's Opinions'' 1878 Webster advocated woman's suffrage and offered her thoughts on topics relevant to married women in this collection of essays. Crawford, p.703

References

Sources

*Crawford, Elizabeth. ''The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey.'' Women's and gender history. London: Routledge, 2006
googlebooks
Accessed 27 September 2008 * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Augusta 1837 births 1894 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery People from Poole English women poets Members of the London School Board 19th-century English poets 19th-century English women writers 19th-century British writers