Anna Laetitia Barbauld established her reputation as an author through her poetry, editing, political tracts, and innovative children's and pedagogical literature. Though she was a Dissenter, and many of her contemporaries did not agree with her principles, Barbauld's varied contributions earned her the respect of critics and supporters alike. Influenced by the classical education she received from her father and the intellectual circle of religious Dissenters, Barbauld remained conscious of social and political problems that she sought to redress through her various writings. Through her efforts to fight for Dissenting causes such as the repeal of the Test Act and the Corporation Act and the abolition of slavery, Barbauld became the best-known female writer of liberal religious dissent.

Barbauld came from eminent Dissenting stock. Her father, John Aikin, a distinguished scholar and theologian, was associated with a line of Dissenting intellectuals that included Philip Doddridge and David Jennings...