Catherine Talbot

Catherine Talbot (1721-70) published very little during her lifetime, but within two years of her death two volumes appeared, edited by her literary executor, Elizabeth Carter, both of which became immensely popular: Reflections on the Seven Days of the Week (London, 1770), which went through more than thirty editions by 1860 (and into the hands of Mary Steele of Broughton, who referred to it in her spiritual autobiography); and Essays on Various Subjects (London, 1772) (also referred to by Steele in an 1804 letter).  More about her life, friendships, and intellectual thought was revealed in A Series of Letters between Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Catherine Talbot, from the year 1741 to 1770, edited by Montagu Pennington (London, 1808); for the Steele references, see Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, vol. 3.