Maria Susanna Cooper (1737–1807) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

novelist, children's author, and poet, notable for her epistolary novels.

Personal life

Maria Susanna was born 20 August 1737 in

Shotesham Shotesham () is a village in South Norfolk which lies approximately 5 miles south of Norwich. It sits next to Stoke Holy Cross and Saxlingham Nethergate in the valley of the River Tas. It covers an area of and had a population of 539 in 210 h ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, to James Bransby and Anna Maria Paston. She married Samuel Cooper in 1761 but although her husband was soon appointed rector at Yelverton, they remained in Shotesham. Maria gave birth to ten children, three of whom died in infancy. In 1781, the Cooper family moved to Great Yarmouth when her husband was appointed curate there. Three of her children died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

between 1786 and 1802, and Samuel Cooper died in 1800. In 1806, Cooper went to live with her eldest son, Robert Bransby Cooper in

Dursley Dursley is a market town and civil parish in southern Gloucestershire, England, almost equidistant from the cities of Bristol and Gloucester. It is under the northeast flank of Stinchcombe Hill, and about southeast of the River Severn. The t ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, and she died there on 3 July 1807. Another of her sons,

Astley Cooper Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (23 August 176812 February 1841) was a British surgeon and anatomist, who made contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the patholog ...

, became a prominent English surgeon and anatomist. Astley in turn influenced her grandson Bransby Blake Cooper to become a surgeon.

Writing

Cooper's earliest writing was in the form of children's books published with

John Newbery John Newbery (9 July 1713 – 22 December 1767), considered "The Father of Children's Literature", was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported ...

, but details of these publications have been lost. Her most prominent writing took the form of

epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...

s, beginning with ''Letters between Emilia and Harriet'', first published in 1762. Cooper's most famous work, ''The Exemplary Mother, or Letters between Mrs. Villars and her Family'', was published in two volumes in 1769 and republished in 1784. Cooper published two novels in 1775 — ''The Daughter (a revised version of her first novel) and ''The History of Fanny Meadows'' — followed by ''Jane Shore to her Friend: A Poetic Epistle'' the following year. After her death in 1806, Cooper's novels were republished in revised editions, alongside two others: ''Moral Tales'' in 1811 and ''The Wife, or, Caroline Herbert'' in 1813.

Chawton House Chawton House is a Grade II* listed Elizabethan manor house in Hampshire. It is run as a historic property and also houses the research library of The Centre for the Study of Early Women's Writing, 1600–1830, using the building's connectio ...

has
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of ''The Wife''. Her early books were published anonymously, and even after her success, her books were only attributed to "the author of ''The Exemplary Mother''", but she did begin to sign her introductions. Cooper's books were particularly didactic, but they also attempted to represent genuine portrayals of realistic people.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Maria Susanna 1737 births English women novelists English women poets 18th-century English writers People from Shotesham 18th-century British women writers 18th-century British writers 1807 deaths 18th-century English women 18th-century English people