Mentoring in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture

In the first collection devoted to mentoring relationships in British literature and culture, the editor and contributors offer a fresh lens through which to observe familiar and lesser known authors and texts. Employing a variety of critical and methodological approaches, which reflect the diversity of the mentoring experiences under consideration, the collection highlights in particular the importance of mentoring in expanding print culture. Topics include John Wilmot the Earl of Rochester's relationships to a range of role models, John Dryden's mentoring of women writers, Alexander Pope's problematic attempts at mentoring, the vexed nature of Jonathan Swift's cross-gender and cross-class mentoring relationships, Samuel Richardson's largely unsuccessful efforts to influence Urania Hill Johnson, and an examination of Elizabeth Carter and Samuel Johnson's as co-mentors of one another's work. Taken together, the essays further the case for mentoring as a globally operative critical concept, not only in the eighteenth century, but in other literary periods as well.

Introduction Authority and Influence in Eighteenth-Century British Literary Mentoring; Chapter 1 “Reverend Shapes”: Lord Rochester’s Many Mentors 1 This chapter is dedicated to my many mentors: Miss Claire Lynch, Dr. Cecil Abernethy, Dr. Monroe Spears, Dr. Bernard Schilling, Dr. Lewis Beck, Dr. Willson Coates, and Dr. H.T. Swedenberg., James William Johnson; Chapter 2 “Manly Strength with Modern Softness”: Dryden and the Mentoring of Women Writers 1 This essay is written with gratitude to Steven N. Zwicker, who taught me to read Dryden and who, like the poet, has given generously and unceasingly to students, female and male, who aspire to think and write well., Anne Cotterill; Chapter 3 Alexander Pope: Perceived Patron, Misunderstood Mentor 1 I would like to thank Jocelyn Harris and Paul Tankard for their extensive and careful suggestions in revising this chapter. And though no footnote could acknowledge all the sound advice and encouragement Jocelyn has offered over the 17 years I have been her colleague, I hope the chapter in some small way expresses how much I have valued her role as mentor., Shef Rogers; Chapter 4 “I will have you spell right, let the world go how it will”: Swift the (Tor)mentor, Brean Hammond, Nicholas Seager1 Brean Hammond supervised Nicholas Seager’s University of Nottingham doctoral dissertation. The present chapter, though not part of that dissertation, is an example of, and a result of, their mentoring relationship.; Chapter 5 Candide and Tom Jones: Voltaire, Perched on Fielding’s Shoulders 1 This article is dedicated to mentor and friend, Professor René LeBlanc. Professor LeBlanc’s encyclopedic knowledge of French literature coupled with his boundless enthusiasm inspired generations of undergraduates at Université Ste-Anne, Nova Scotia’s only French language university., E.M. Langille; Chapter 6 Filling Blanks in the Richardson Circle: The Unsuccessful Mentorship of Urania Johnson 1 I would like to thank my own mentor, James Grantham Turn

Anthony W. Lee, who teaches at Arkansas Tech University and University of Maryland University College, has published a book and several articles on Johnson and his circle. He is currently finishing an annotated edition of Johnson’s Rambler.