I just discovered this fascinating woman this morning, on the occasion of her birthday.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was a ‘prolific letter writer in almost every epistolary style; she was also a distinguished minor poet, always competent, sometimes glittering and genuinely eloquent. She is further remembered as an essayist, feminist, traveler, and eccentric.’

Here are three excellent features on Montagu:

“Lady Mary Wortley Montagu“. Encyclopædia Britannica.

“Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689–1762“. The Poetry Foundation.

Secor, A., 1999. ‘Orientalism, gender and class in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters: to persons of distinction, men of letters and c’. Cultural Geographies (formerly Ecumene) Volume 6, Issue 4 pp375-398. Arnold Publishers.

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