By John Hudson Aemilia Lanyer (Also known as Amelia Bassano Lanier) [1] is a controversial figure. The traditional approach to constructing her biography typically takes literary history and gender theory as its disciplinary boundaries. Within these contexts, the basic facts of her biography, which are a matter of record are included. The more speculative aspects are ignored: Aemilia’s Jewish…
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Isabella Losa
by Koren Whipp Isabella Losa de Cardona (1491-1564) was born in Cardona, a town north of Barcelona, Spain. After the death of her husband in 1539, she became a Clarissan abbess and moved to Vercelli in Piedmont in 1553, where she founded an orphanage, Santa Maria di Loreto.[1] Losa is said to have mastered Latin,…
Elizabeth Lucar
by Eliana Greenberg Elizabeth Lucar (1510-1537) was born in London in 1510. She was the daughter of Paul Withypoll, who afforded her a liberal education. She was schooled in needlework, mathematics, music, language (including Latin, Italian, and Spanish) and, most importantly, calligraphy. She is credited with writing the first English essay on the subject of…
Mary Leapor
Poems Upon Several Occasions (1748) by Mary Leapor by Gina Luria Walker Mary Leapor 1722–1746 was an English poet, born in Marston St. Lawrence, Northamptonshire. She was considered remarkable for being a talented working-class writer of the time. Partly self-educated, she may have received some training at a local Dame school, or at the…
Jane Lane, Lady Fisher
by Koren Whipp Jane Lane, Lady Fisher c. 1613/25[1]–1689 was the daughter of Thomas Lane and Anne Bagot of Staffordshire. She became Lady Fisher on 8 December 1662 when she married Sir Clement Fisher. Lane played a daring role in the escape of Charles II in 1651. After the Battle of Worcester in 1651 in…
Jane Loudon
by Koren Whipp Jane C. Loudon 1807-58 was a British writer best known for creating the first popular gardening manuals, providing an alternative to the specialist horticultural books of the day. Loudon was born into a wealthy family. Following her mother’s death in 1819, she and her father, Thomas Webb, a Birmingham manufacturer, traveled the continent where…
