Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, née Pierrepont, was born in London, a daughter of Evelyn and Mary Pierrepont. Her father became earl of Kingston the year after her birth. She was educated at home and taught herself Latin in her father's library. Her early influences were the classics, John Dryden, and French romances. In 1710, she translated the Enchiridion (Handbook) of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus from Latin into English and sent a copy to Gilbert Brunet, Bishop of Salisbury, with a letter defending women's right to formal education. Despite her initial reluctance, in 1712, she married Edward Wortley Montagu, a lawyer, diplomat, and Member of Parliament. Her first published writing appeared in 1714 in Addison's Spectator, under the pseudonym Lady President. During this period she also became friends with a literary circle that included Alexander Pope and John Gay. She is chiefly known today for the letters she wrote while the couple were living in 1716-1718 in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), where her husband served as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Her writings are considered an extremely valuable historical resource, and the earliest secular work by a woman about the Muslim world. She also wrote volumes of poems, essays, a brief epistolary novel, and a play. Lady Mary kept a diary, but it was burned after her death by her daughter Mary, Lady Bute. Her surviving Letters and Works were published in 1837 with an introduction by her granddaughter Lady Louisa Stuart.