This edited volume is the first to reflect on the theory and practice of editing women's writing of the 18th century. The list of contributors includes experts on the fiction, drama, poetry, life-writing, diaries and correspondence of familiar and lesser known women, including Jane Austen, Delarivier Manley, Eliza Haywood and Mary Robinson.

Amy Culley is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Lincoln. She is the author of British Women's Life Writing, 1760-1840: Friendship, Community, and Collaboration (Palgrave, 2014), co-editor with Daniel Cook of Women's Life Writing, 1700-1850: Gender, Genre and Authorship (Palgrave, 2012) and editor of Women's Court and Society Memoirs, volumes 1-4 (Pickering & Chatto, 2009).

Anna M. Fitzer is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Hull. She is editor of Memoirs of Women Writers Part I (Pickering & Chatto, 2012), a four-volume set in the Chawton House Library series incorporating Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mrs Frances Sheridan, Memoirs of the Life of Mrs Hannah More, and Some Account of Life and Writings of Mrs Trimmer.

Contents

Notes on Contributors

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: Editing Women's Writing, 1670-1840

Amy Culley and Anna M. Fitzer

2. An Ambitious and Quixotic Series: the Ever-Shifting Role of the Editor: Chawton House Library Series

Lorna J. Clark

3. Editing Eliza Haywood's The Female Spectator (1744-6): Making (and Unmaking) a Periodical 'for Women'

Kathryn R. King

4. Mary Robinson's Poetry and Questions of Quality

Daniel Robinson

5. Annotating Delariver Manley: Stripping Away Preconceptions of Gender and Genre

Rachel Carnell

6. Julie and Julia: Tracing Intertextuality in Helen Maria Williams's Novel

Natasha Duquette

7. Romancing the Past: Women's Historical Fiction, Editorial Pains and Practices

Fiona Price

8. A 'Piece written by a Lady': Gender, Anonymous Authorship and Editing The Histories of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House (1760)

Jennie Batchelor and Megan Hiatt

9. 'Some uncalled-for revival of by-gone scandals'?: Editing Women's Court Memoirs

Amy Culley

10. 'Posthumous remains, family papers, and reminiscences sans fin': Editing Women in the Chawton House Library Series

Anna M. Fitzer

11. Publishing Frances Burney's Journals and Letters in Twenty-Five Volumes

Peter Sabor

12. 'An Editor's duty is indeed that of most danger': the Rationale for A Digital Edition of Elizabeth Montagu's Letters

Caroline Franklin and Nicole Pohl

Selected Works Cited