Elizabeth Bentley (Writer)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Elizabeth Bentley (1767-1839) was a poet.She was born in Norwich to Elizabeth Lawrence and Daniel Bentley. The latter, a journeyman cordwainer who had himself received a good education, educated Elizabeth, his only child. The family faced financial difficulties after he had a stroke in 1777 and was unable to work at his usual trade. He died in 1783, when his daughter was sixteen. Two years later, Bentley reported a new-found desire to write poetry "which [she] had no thought or desire of being seen." Her first collection, Genuine Poetical Compositions (1791), had an impressive 1,935 subscribers, including literary notables Elizabeth Carter, Elizabeth Montagu, William Cowper, and Hester Chapone.