Joanna Baillie was a Scottish poet, playwright and playwright, known for her works, including her famous Jeux sur les passions which was a theatrical sequence. More than 250 years after her death, Joanna’s writings, primarily focused on women, moral philosophy, and Gothic, still hold great relevance around the world. In 2018, his birthday was commemorated by Google with a Google Doodle.
Who is Joanna Baillie?
It was on September 11, 1762 that Joanna Baillie was born as a twin by Dorothea Hunter, with father James Baillie. Unfortunately, she lost her twin sister who was then still unknown. She grew up in a highly educated family with a Presbyterian pastor father, who later became a professor of theology.
On her mother’s side of the family, she had William Hunter and John Hunter, great physicians and anatomists as uncles, and the poet Anne Home Hunter as her aunt. In fact, Anne would be a great inspiration to Joanna growing up.
Even with the kind of home she came from, she didn’t learn to read or write until she was 10, when she attended a boarding school in Glasgow. While there, she was interested in the arts, plays, and mathematics.
Looking back at her family life, she was the youngest of her three siblings, she lost her father in 1778, a tragedy which saw the financial state of the family compel him to settle in Long Calderwood before returning a few years later after the death of William Hunter.
Much later, however, she found herself, her mother and sisters moving from house to house before settling in Colchester. It was here that she began what was to end up among her most popular works, Jeux sur les passions
Facts about the poet, playwright and playwright
As pointed out, his aunt, Anne Home Hunter, a famous poet, would become his first and major influence in becoming a poet and playwright.
Through this Joanna Baillie maintained her interest in art, and in 1790 she published her first work, Poems: in which it is attempted to describe certain views of nature and rustic manners. The work was later revised and reprinted in 1840 as part of his Fugitive Verses. In 1821 she published Legends of Metrics of Exalted Characters followed by Poetry Dramatic which was a 3-volume work in 1836.
In 1840 she was encouraged by her friend Samuel Rogers, also a publishing poet. Fugitive verses. Finally she published Ahalya Baee in 1849 but it was only for private circulation and hence it was published again in 1904 Allahabad.
She would be even more popular with her plays, the first of which was a 1790 work, Arnold, which was never published. Having conceived the idea of Jeux sur les passions in 1791, he saw the light of day in 1798 when the first volume was published. From then on she wrote until her death on February 23, 1851, in Hampstead, aged 88. That said, her writing years were interrupted when she was in her seventies, following an illness she had suffered, but when she regained her health she continued.
With all that Joanna Baillie had achieved through her writing, she revealed that she had no interest in publishing any of her works except to persuade her brother. Considering she grew up in a religious household, she also had a religious work, The Martyr which was published in 1826.
Before her death, one of her biggest worries was to get all of her books together in one volume which she referred to as a “great book of monsters”. To his delight, it came to fruition in 1851, shortly before his death.
A Google Doodle was released for her by Google on September 11, 2018 in commemoration of what was to be her 256th birthday. This is not surprising considering that she is one of Scotland’s finest writers. Writers such as William Wordsworth, Maria Edgeworth, John Stuart Mill and many more.
Besides her writings, Joanna Baillie was also involved in different things including philanthropic activities. It is said that she would have donated half of her earnings as a writer to her works, while participating in many other philanthropic works.