31 Facts About Eliza Haywood

Eliza Haywood today is studied primarily as one of the 18th-century founders of the novel in English.

Scholars of Eliza Haywood universally agree upon only one thing: the exact date of her death.

Eliza Haywood gave conflicting accounts of her own life; her origins remain unclear, and there are presently contending versions of her biography.

The early life of Eliza Haywood is somewhat of a mystery to scholars.

Eliza Haywood described herself as a "widow", noting in 1719 that her marriage was "unfortunate", but no record of her marriage has been found and the identity of her husband remains unknown.

Scholars have speculated that Eliza Haywood had an affair and even a child with Richard Savage in the 1720s, in addition to a 20-year open relationship with William Hatchett, who was suspected of being the father of her second child.

Eliza Haywood was a player, playwright, pamphleteer and translator who shared a stage career with Haywood, and they collaborated on an adaptation of The Tragedy of Tragedies by Henry Fielding and an opera, The Opera of Operas; or, Tom Thumb the Great.

Eliza Haywood's long writing career began in 1719 with the first instalment of Love in Excess, a novel, and ended in the year she died with the conduct books The Wife and The Husband and contributions to the biweekly periodical The Young Lady.

Eliza Haywood is considered "the foremost female 'author by profession' and businesswoman of the first half of the eighteenth century", tireless and prolific in her endeavours as an author, poet, playwright, periodical writer and editor, and publisher.

Eliza Haywood was buried in Saint Margaret's Church near Westminster Abbey in an unmarked grave in the churchyard.

Eliza Haywood began her acting career in 1715 at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin.

Public records for this year list her as "Mrs Eliza Haywood," appearing in Thomas Shadwell's Shakespeare adaptation, Timon of Athens; or, The Man-Hater.

However, when Eliza Haywood wrote the play, it is likely that she was still aiming to secure the patronage of the whole royal family, including Queen Caroline, as the royal split had yet to occur.

Eliza Haywood's adaptation contains a reconciliation scene, replete with symbols from Caroline's own grotto.

Eliza Haywood's beloved friend Henriquez conducts her to Padua, but falls for her charms.

Eliza Haywood then receives a letter informing her of Myrtano's engagement to another woman, and so she leaves for Verona, hoping to enter a convent.

Eliza Haywood is found and taken home by a lady, Antonia, who falls in love with her.

Eliza Haywood gives way to "ungovernable passion" and becomes pregnant.

However, Eliza Haywood's audience consisted of both men and women, and Lady Trusty's bridal admonitions, the most conservative and patriarchal words of advice in the novel, are contradictory and impossible for any woman to execute completely.

The fullest and most detailed bibliography of Eliza Haywood is by Patrick Spedding.

Eliza Haywood followed a lead by contemporary John Dunton who issued the Ladies' Mercury as a companion to his successful Athenian Mercury.

Eliza Haywood worked on sensational pamphlets on the contemporary deaf-mute prophet, Duncan Campbell.

Eliza Haywood was active in politics throughout her career, although she changed parties around the time George II was reconciled to Robert Walpole.

Eliza Haywood wrote a series of parallel histories, beginning with the Memoirs of a Certain Island, Adjacent to Utopia, and then The Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the Court of Caramania.

Eliza Haywood grew more directly political in The Invisible Spy and The Wife.

Eliza Haywood is notable as a transgressive, outspoken writer of amatory fiction, plays, romance and novels.

Eliza Haywood had begun to make it known that she was poor and in need of funds; she seemed to be writing for pay and to please an undiscerning public.

Eliza Haywood is being re-evaluated by feminist scholars and rated highly.

Eliza Haywood's plays and political writing attracted most attention in her own time, and she was a full player in that difficult public sphere.

King is uncertain whether Eliza Haywood produced the books and pamphlets that she sold or whether she was a bookseller, especially for her own early productions.

Eliza Haywood sometimes collaborated on publishing so as to share the costs, as she did with Cogan on The Virtuous Villager.