Creative Collaboration – Remembering Dorothy Wordsworth

Dorothy Wordsworth would not identify herself as a poet, but she did write beautiful poetry and help her brother William with his. She also wrote many travel narratives and journals expanding on her life and time with others, as well as hundreds of letters to acquaintances, family, and friends. Her “Excursion up Scawfell Pike” was actually first composed as a letter, though it was later published as part of her brother’s Lake District guidebook. Meanwhile, her journals give a “behind the scenes” look at many texts and writers at the time, and some journal entries make their way into the published writings of others. The writers of the Lake District spent a lot of time together, sharing ideas, words, and experiences, and Dorothy’s work and life are key to showing us this collaborative creative economy.

Dorothy Wordsworth, Address to a Child and The Mother's Return in William Wordsworth's 1815 Poems — Dorothy Wordsworth, "Address to a Child" and "The Mother's Return" in William Wordsworth's 1815 *Poems*

Manuscript or page from Dorothy Wordsworth's account of her excursion up Scawfell Pike, 7 October 1818 — "Excursion Up Scawfell Pike"

She is a Woman Indeed! Portrait of Dorothy Wordsworth — "She is a Woman Indeed!"

Cover of Dorothy Wordsworth, Wonders of Everyday by Pamela Woof — Pamela Woof, *Dorothy Wordsworth, Wonders of Everyday*, 2013

Title page of Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, volume 1, 1897 edition — *Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth*, 1897

Cover of Letters of Dorothy Wordsworth: A Selection, edited by Alan Hill, 1985 — *Letters of Dorothy Wordsworth: A Selection*, 1985

Cover or page from Letters of the Wordsworth Family from 1787 to 1855 — *Letters of the Wordsworth Family from 1787 to 1855*

This display case assembled by Petesi Feinga, Lexa Porter, and Taylore Bonds.