1. About the Database

Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period corrects a glaring omission in the literary history of the British Isles—and of Romanticism generally. Comprising more than eighty volumes of poetry by Irish women writing between 1768 and 1842, the database enables researchers to delve more deeply than ever into this significant, but largely underappreciated, body of work.

Most of the texts in the database exist in print in fewer than five libraries in the world, often locked away within archives. For nearly two centuries, the distinctive voices of such poets as Henrietta Battier, I. S. Anna Liddiard, Adelaide O’Keeffe, Elizabeth Ryves, and Melesina Trench have remained practically unheard. Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period allows these women to speak to a new generation of students and scholars.

Along with the poetic texts are biographical and critical essays contributed by the foremost scholars in the field. Specially commissioned by Alexander Street, the essays provide valuable historical context and insightful literary analysis for student and professor alike. For some of the poets, the essays will be the only substantial scholarly assessments available. This combination of primary source content and original scholarly commentary—fully indexed and searchable together—makes Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period an authoritative resource for anyone studying the history and literature of Ireland and Great Britain.

The collection is part of the Alexander Street Literature package, which enables researchers to explore the rich literary heritage of diverse cultures from across the globe.

2. Introductory Essay

The database has been carefully compiled and edited by Stephen Behrendt, George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Nebraska. Professor Behrendt has written an extensive introductory essay to the collection, which may be read here.

3. Acknowledgements

Stephen C. Behrendt

A project of this sort does not reach fruition without benefiting from the efforts and expertise of a great many, and so my debts are many. The institutional ones are in some respects the easiest to enumerate. The Office of Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Nebraska, under the direction of Dr. Prem Paul, has supported my work at various stages of this project, and my gratitude for that support is very considerable. At the University of Nebraska I have also benefited greatly from the assistance of the Interlibrary Loan staff of the University Libraries, and particularly its director, Brian O’Grady; they have been invaluable in helping me track down and secure copies of primary and secondary materials alike. Kate Kane in the Microforms department of the University Libraries has likewise been generous of spirit and of expertise, and her contributions to the final product have been many.

I want to extend my special thanks to the American Council of Learned Societies for a Fellowship that supported me during the crucial final year of preparing this archive, when I was able to relinquish teaching and service activities to devote my full energy to the project. For this wonderfully timely support, I am most grateful.

Several colleagues have contributed to the evolution of this entire project with everything from letters of support to insightful advice and commiseration at those inevitable moments when things seemed ready to grind to a halt or to collapse altogether. Chief among these are Stuart Curran, Paula Feldman, Greg Kucich, Anne Mellor, Diane Long Hoeveler, and Harriet Kramer Linkin, from all of whom I have learned much and to all of whom my gratitude is as great as my affection. I also want to acknowledge Nancy Kushigian, from whom I learned much about the relations of digital archives to textual recovery and scholarship when we collaborated several years ago on the Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period database, also published by Alexander Street Press, that is the counterpart to this present collection. I also thank those many colleagues who have listened as I have talked about this material both formally and informally at conferences and elsewhere, and who have been unfailingly generous and helpful in their responses and suggestions.

The roster of scholars who have contributed the introductory bio-critical introductions to individual poets is at once humbling and gratifying. In developing this database, it has been my pleasure to work with scholars at all stages of their professional careers who are distributed literally around the world. I have been struck from the start by the generosity of spirit and the enthusiasm of intellect that they have displayed first in responding to my invitation to participate and subsequently in the correspondence that has gone with preparing and assembling all the components of this collection. The expertise they have brought to their contributions, individually and collectively, has ensured that this entire project will continue to shape the discussion of Romantic-era Irish women poets, and indeed of the entire landscape of Romantic-era literary and cultural production, for many years to come.

At Alexander Street Press, I thank the Director, Stephen Rhind-Tutt, who got behind this project early on and who saw to it that it assumed its present form with remarkable dispatch. So, too, do I thank Will Whalen, Editorial VP at Alexander Street Press, who has shepherded the project along with great skill, quiet diplomacy, and reassuring patience. Finally, and as always, my greatest debt is to my wife Patricia Flanagan Behrendt, whose own Irish heritage has lent her a particular and unique interest in, and perspective upon, this entire project. My gratitude for her unfailingly insightful observations and suggestions is matched only by my gratitude for the love, support, and understanding with which she has always been so abundantly generous. This collection is dedicated to her, with the greatest of love, and as only a partial payment upon that debt of affection.

4. Subscription and Free Trial Information

Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period is available for one-time purchase of perpetual access, or as an annual subscription. Please contact us at sales@alexanderstreet.com if you wish to begin a subscription or to request a free 30-day trial.

5. Editorial Contact Information

Questions and comments about the content, including errata reports, should be addressed to the Editor at editor@astreetpress.com.

6. Copyright

All materials in the database are protected under U.S. and International Copyright Law. Fair use under the law permits reproduction of single copies for personal research and private use. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of protected items requires the written permission of the copyright owners.

7. Cataloging Records

MARC records are available for this collection.