Harriet Lee

From Wikinfo

Harriet Lee, born in 1757 in London, England - died August 1, 1851 in Clifton, England, was a writer.

Born the daughter of actor John Lee, she grew up in an artistic family. In 1786, she published a novel written in letters titled The Errors of Innocence and in 1797 completed a novel, Clara Lennox. That same year she put out the first volume of the Canterbury Tales, a collection of twelve stories completed in 1805. Her sister, Sophia Lee (1750-1824), was also a successful author and dramatist who contributed two episodes for the first volume in the lengthy project. One of the episodes, titled Kruitzner, was dramatized by Lord Byron in 1821 under the title of Werner, or the Inheritance. Harriet Lee then wrote it as a play titled The Three Strangers that debuted at London's Covent Garden in 1825.

After the death of his wife Mary Wollstonecraft, the political philosopher William Godwin began pursuing Harriet for marriage but the quite proper and religious 41-year-old Ms. Lee rejected his proposal based on their different philosophies and religion.

She and her sister ran a school opened a school at Belvedere House in the city of Bath where they became friends with novelist Ann Radcliffe. The two sisters spent their final years in the village of Clifton, near Bristol.

Harriet Lee lived to be 94, passing away at Clifton, England in 1851 where she is interred in the Church cemetery with her sister.