A. Woodfin

A. Woodfin
Other names	Mrs. Woodfin
Occupation	Novelist
Years active	1756-1764

A. Woodfin was a British author who published at least five novels between December 1756 and May 1764.

Life

Little is known of Woodfin. The exact dates of her birth and death are unknown, though it is estimated she was born between 1700 and 1736. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Woodward ran a school located in Bullet Court, off the Strand, around 1763. ^[4] Woodfin "appears to have occupied one or other of the several distinct rungs of the middling ranks, but nothing definite is known. Her religion, politics, and personal orientation are even more opaque." ^[1]

Work

Woodfin published her first three novels anonymously. She claimed authorship in a later title-page for the third novel, The Auction, and for her fourth and fifth novels, The History of Miss Harriot Watson (1762) and The Discovery (1764). ^[1] Woodfin's first two novels were published by John and Francis Noble. Her subsequent three novels, beginning with The Auction, were published by T. Lowndes.

Woodfin's first novel, Northern Memoirs, or the History of a Scotch Family received mildly positive reviews. A review in the Monthly Review in 1756 wrote, “If it affords no indications of genius, it shews no want of invention; and if the incidents are not very affecting, they are more natural and probable, than those with which most of our late adventure-books have been stuffed. ^[4] The Critical Review wrote that the novel was “natural, pleasing, and in some measure affecting,” with “more merit than the common run of such pieces.” ^[4]

Woodfin is sometimes attributed to as the author of the novel The History of Eliza Musgrove (1769). However, the author Phebe Gibbes claimed authorship of the novel in a letter to the Royal Literary Fund on 18 October 1784. ^[1] The British Library Catalogue also lists Woodfin as the author of the Emma Corbett; or, The Miseries of Civil War (1780), though no reason is given for this attribution. ^[1]

Woodfin was one of the “lost” women writers listed by Dale Spender in the 1986 Mothers of the Novel . ^[5]

Works

• Northern Memoirs: or, the History of a Scotch Family. Written by a lady. In two volumes. London: John and Francis Noble, 1756.
• The History of Miss Sally Sable. By the author of Memoirs of a Scotch family. In two volumes. London: John and Francis Noble, 1757.
• The Auction: a Modern Novel. In Two Volumes. London: Thomas Lowndes, 1760.
• The History of Miss Harriot Watson. In two volumes. London: Thomas Lowndes, 1762.
• The Discovery: or, Memoirs of Miss Marianne Middleton. London: Thomas Lowndes, 1764.

References

1. "A. Woodfin". Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Cambridge UP. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
2. "Woodfin, A." The Women's Print History Project. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
3. "A. Woodfin". The Virtual International Authority File. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
4. Todd, Janet (1985). A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld. pp. 333–334.
5. Spender, Dale (1986). Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen. London: Pandora Press.