Hester Lynch Piozzi was a diarist, letter-writer, poet, biographer, annotator, travel-writer, historian, grammarian, essayist, and literary salonnière. Though she is perhaps best known as a friend, confidante, and biographer of Samuel Johnson (whom she rescued from a bout of depression in 1766, and whose companionship she both cherished and resented for the next eighteen years), her body of work is impressively varied, original, and erudite, and Piozzi has received increasing attention in recent years as an important literary figure in her own right. Plagued by tragedy and scandal, and suffering through episodes of anxiety and depression, Piozzi was nonetheless high-spirited and insatiably curious, and remained so until her death at the age of 80. Indeed, her personality was marked by…
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Citation: Meek, Heather. "Hester Lynch Piozzi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 September 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4393, accessed 25 November 2024.]
