LUCY AIKIN - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED 06/17/1824 - HFSID 72912

LUCY AIKIN
She discusses her mother's and her own search for a permanent home after her father's death.
Autograph Note signed: "L Aikin", 1p, 7¼x2¼. Hampstead (England), 1824 June 17. No addressee. In full: "My dear mother is quite well, & beautifully patient and cheerful under the discomforts of lodging for the present & the threats of future removal, which would be a serious grievance indeed to most women at her time of life. She is anxious for nothing but that I should recover the powers of usefulness & enjoyment. With our kindest united love, believe me ever yours". And on verso: ... "afraid we shall be obliged to pass another winter before we can accomplish a removal; but the hope of one will be a great benefit in itself. At present we have the satisfaction of being under the same roof with the Coltmans, & I hope we shall now have more enjoyment of their society than we have yet found. Mr. Colltman, who was very unwell at the time of our arrival, but is now recovered; & the death of his sister, which has detained them for several days in town, reliees them from a state of painful expectations; for all hope had long been over." Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) was part of a very talented English family. Her father, John Aikin, was a medical doctor and influential essayist and biographer. Her brother, Arthur Aikin, was a noted chemist and mineralogist. Her aunt, Anna Letitia Barbauld, was a poet, essayist and author of widely used children's primers, a woman whose outspoken radicalism offended English mores of the time but who has been rediscovered by modern feminist scholars. Lucy Aikin herself was best known as a historian. She published biographies of British monarchs Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, and of other prominent persons. She helped preserve the memory of Anna Letitia Barbauld, Romantic poet and social reformer who was influential until her poem 1811, opposing Britain's war against Napoleon, turned opinion against her. Lucy Aikin never married. She lived with her parents at Hampstead until after her father's death in 1822. Unevenly trimmed. Slightly soiled. Originally clipped from a letter with intention of preserving the signature side. Mounting paper remains on verso. But handwriting on verso is Aikin's also and on the same theme. Overall, fine condition.