A Travel Writer Reconsidered: Recovering Mary Morgan’s Mary, the Osier-Peeler

Authors

Emily D. Spunaugle, Oakland UniversityFollow

Author Biography

Emily D. Spunaugle is Assistant Professor and Humanities Librarian at Oakland University Libraries in Rochester, Michigan.

Abstract

Recently discovered is the singly-extant 1798 quarto chapbook, Mary, the Osier-Peeler, a Simple but True Story, written by Mary Morgan, best known for her 1795 travel narrative, A Tour to Milford Haven, in the Year 1791. The inaccessibility of the osier poem has shaped the scholarly understanding of Morgan as solely a travel writer, disregarding the intertextuality of her published oeuvre and its post-publication circulation. This essay revisits the historiography of Mary Morgan and demonstrates her embeddedness in local networks, coterie relationships with notables such as Bluestocking Elizabeth Montagu, and introduces evidence of a broader, international audience to better contextualize Morgan’s readership and circulation.

Recommended Citation

Spunaugle, Emily D. (2020) "A Travel Writer Reconsidered: Recovering Mary Morgan’s Mary, the Osier-Peeler," ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830: Vol.10: Iss.2, Article 2.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2157-7129.10.2.1218
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/abo/vol10/iss2/2