Anna Jameson's Famous Friends
From Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Nathanial Hawthorne, Anna Jameson attracted the admiration and companionship of many noteworthy writers, artists, and their various family members on both sides of the Atlantic. Scroll down to learn more about Anna's famous friendships.
Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
During an 1846 trip to Paris, Anna wrote home, "A piece of Romance has come across my life [...] Robert Browning, my poet, is here––and with a wife he has run off with––and who, think you, is this wife? ––no other than Elizabeth Barrett, my poetess––a pretty pair to go thro [sic] this prosaic world together."
After helping the famous couple elope to Italy, Anna remained a friend of the Brownings for the rest of her life, especially of Elizabeth, who referred to Anna as "my dearest Mona Nina." After Anna's death, Elizabeth wrote to Anna's niece, Gerardine MacPherson, declaring, "May God comfort you, and those who, like you, know what she was––that dearest friend."
Harriet Martineau
Although she and Anna were occasionally on friendly terms, the early English sociologist and composer of her own North American travel account, Society in America, was somewhat of a rival for Anna. When reviewing Anna's Characteristics of Women, Harriet wrote, "The study of Shakespeare's heroines, though 'charming,' conveys 'no philosophy' or substance." She also criticized Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, stating, "[Jameson] with her Irish vehemence, gushed about German and Italian art and English literature, whereupon she 'rushed into a wild Indian life.' ... If Jameson had not been so hungry for attention, she might have been a great reformer." In modern slang, Harriet and Anna may have been best described as "frenemies."
Anne Isabelle Byron (Lady Byron)
As the former wife of the Romantic poet Lord Byron, Lady Byron is vividly remembered for attempting to tame her husband according to her devoutly religious morals. After her divorce, she met Anna and the two became close friends. However, a falling out cost Anna her friendship not only with Lady Byron, but also with the Lady's cousin, Sir Robert Noel, with whom Anna had had an active correspondence during her Canadian travels.
Fanny Kemble
Fanny Kemble was a well-known English stage actress and writer in the early-to-mid 1800s, whom Anna paid many visits. Excerpts from Fanny's diary often recount humorous anecdotes, such as a visit where Anna "threatened to write a play." At the time, Fanny believed her friend might carry out this "threat," because she "[was] very clever, [had] a vast fund of information, a good deal of experience, and knowledge and observation of the world and of society."
However, some historians say that Anna's friendship with Fanny was one-sided. In Love and Work Enough: The Life of Anna Jameson, Clara Thomas writes, "The pattern of this friendship establishes a design that was to be repeated at intervals throughout Anna Jameson's lifetime. She is the seeker and the instigator; the subject of her enthusiasm, at first genuinely attracted and impressed, becomes alarmed and impatient at [Anna's] insistence and cannot return in full measure her enthusiastic regard" (42). Thomas's observation echoes Marian Fowler's assertion that "In all her relationships, Anna needed to dominate" (142), but fails to acknowledge the many strong, mutual friendships Anna forged in her lifetime.
George Eliot
George Eliot, the Victorian-era novelist, so enjoyed Anna's Sacred and Legendary Art, that she copied passages into her notebooks. In The Mill on the Floss, she also referred to Anna as "my private hagiographer."
Catherine Sedgwick
Catherine Sedgwick, the American author of works such as Hope Leslie and Live and Let Live, met Anna when the latter visited Massachusetts on her North American voyage. Catherine later called Anna "the best talker I have ever heard."
Elizabeth Gaskell
When Elizabeth Gaskell was completing her novel North and South, she asked Anna for advice on the ending, to help resolve a quarrel with Charles Dickens.
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Bessie Rayner Parkes was an early English feminist activist, poet, and essayist. She met Anna in 1859 at a meeting in Bradford, England about the employment of women.
When describing the meeting, Bessie noted, "[Anna]'s age, and the comparative refinement of her mental powers, had prevented her sphere of action from being 'popular' in the modern sense; and this, of course created a stronger desire to see and hear her, of whom they knew little personally. Her singularly low and gentle voice fell upon her and every ear drank in her thoughtful and weighty words."
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne, the prolific American author, met Anna in 1848 when they were both in Italy. When describing the meeting, The Scarlet Letter author wrote,"I had expected to see an elderly lady, but not quite so venerable a one as Mrs. Jameson proved to be. ... She is said to be rather irascible in her temper; but nothing could be sweeter than her voice, her look, and all her manifestations today.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet best known for works such as "Paul Revere's Ride" and "The Song of Hiawatha." He once wrote a letter to Anna, stating, "Having many friends who are your friends and admirers, and none more so than my own wife, I venture to smuggle myself in among them at this season. ... I beg you to accept a volume of poems which I have just published, and in which I hope there may be something that will give you pleasure, you have given me so much, particularly in your last work, 'Sacred and Legendary Art.'"
Ottilie von Goethe
Perhaps Anna Jameson's most well-known friendship was with Ottilie von Goethe (née von Pogwisch), the daughter-in-law of the 18th- and early 19th-century German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. After meeting Ottilie during her sojourn in Weimar, Anna wrote to her new friend for the rest of her life, despite Ottilie's worsening reputation in Victorian society. Anna also helped to take care of Ottilie's secret illegitimate daughter, Anna Sibylle, who died young.
As G.H. Needler writes in Letters of Anna Jameson to Ottilie von Goethe, "Few women display such a genius for friendship as Mrs. Jameson. ... Her native impulse to sympathize with distress, coupled with a perception of the true worth of character ... moved her to spontaneous sacrifice on [Ottilie von Goethe's] behalf" (vii).
Works Cited
Booth, Alison. How to Make It as a Woman: Collective Biographical History from Victoria to the Present. The University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Fowler, Marian. The Embroidered Tent: Five Gentlewomen in Early Canada. Anasi, 1982.
Johnston, Judith. Anna Jameson: Victorian, Feminist, Woman of Letters. Ipswich Book Co. Ltd. 1997.
Letters of Anna Jameson to Ottilie von Goethe. ed. G.H. Needler. Oxford University Press, 1939.
Macpherson, Gerardine. Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson. Roberts Bros., 1878.
Thomas, Clara. Love and Work Enough: The Life of Anna Jameson. University of Toronto Press, 1967.
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