Marjorie Reeves

In 1997 Marjorie Reeves published Pursuing the Muses: Female Education and Nonconformist Culture 1700-1900 a volume that volume focuses on a group of inter-related middle-class families who were unusually articulate. They left two collections of letters, diaries, poetry, commonplace books and school books. The writers speak to each other across the counties and are linked in a Nonconformist family network. The first part of the text looks at how 18th-century young women with literary aspirations escaped from the typical girls' school to gain their real education from male friends, advocates of the "blue stockings". The middle part focuses on a literary circle (mostly women) who combined spiritual piety with contemporary classical/pastoral romance, writing hymns but also exchanging playful verse with friends who were Baptist divines. The final part, covering the 19th century, follows this literary tradition through four generations in one village. In the book several pages are devoted to Anne Steele.