Romantic

• Faulkner, Thomas C.. “Crabbe, George (1754-1832).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Beer, John. “Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• The Early Poems of John Clare, 1804–1822. Ed. E. Robinson and D. Powell. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989
• John Clare: Poems of the Middle Period, 1822–1837. Ed. E. Robinson, D. Powell, and P. M. S. Dawson. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996–98.

• Beales, Derek. “Canning, George (1770-1827).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Carnall, Geoffrey. “Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• McGann, Jerome. “Byron, George Gordon Noel, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Crawford, Robert. “Burns, Robert (1759-1796).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Marston, J. W. "Bowles, William Lisle (1762-1850)." Rev. Leon Litvack. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

• Essick, Robert N.. “Blake, William (1757-1827).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

Born in Kibworth, Leicestershire, Anna Letitia Aitkin was educated at home by her mother, Jane Jennings. Her father became tutor in divinity at a new Presbyterian school at Warrington, Lancashire, where 15-year-old Anna became friends with Joseph Priestley and his wife when he moved there as tutor in languages in 1761.