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| Anna Laetita Barbould 1743-1825 |
Anna Laetitia Barbould was very close with her brother. Her brother's influence was so great upon her life, in part because he was the first one to tell her that she should write and later encouraged her to publish her poetry. Today, ALB reminds us of the playfulness of poetry. Told from a child's perspective, Washing Day reminds us that every truth in life is largely dependent on your perspective.
The collaboration of work between her younger brother, John Aiken and her has resulted in Evenings at Home and Monthly Magazine. Barbould even raised her brother's third born son.
In her own life, her husband Rochemont Barbould was a French Huguenot and sought asylum in England where the two fell in love. They were married in 1774, and bore no children, but ran a children's home until 1785. Her love of children highly influenced her writing, and she often plays around with writing from a child's perspective.
Unfortunately, by January of 1808, Rochemont's health was deteriorating, and he was stricken by mental illness. At one point, he chased her around a room of their house with a knife. Barbould, afraid for her life jumped out the window to the safety of her garden. However, it shook her up so terribly that she had to make the painful decision to be separated from her husband in March of that year. This was followed by many entries about grief and loss. By November of that year, her husband escaped his mental institution and drowned himself in the river.
