Primary sourceLetter1793

The Love Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay

Mary Wollstonecraft · 1793

A collection of intimate letters written by Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay, revealing her personal relationships.

Intimate letters written by Wollstonecraft to her lover Gilbert Imlay, showing her personal life.

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Dark red cloth book cover with a cream-colored library call number label in the upper left corner reading PR 5841 and W8Z54 in black handwriting and print. No title or other text is visible. — Mary Wollstonecraft, The Love Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay. National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, Library of Congress.

About this source

What it is

This is a book collecting letters written by Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay, with whom she had a relationship. The volume was once owned by suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt and is now part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection at the Library of Congress. The image shows the book's dark red cloth cover with a library call number label.

Why it matters

These letters give a rare, intimate view of Wollstonecraft's personal life, separate from her public writing on women's rights. The fact that this volume was later owned by a leading suffragist shows how later generations of women's rights activists looked back to Wollstonecraft as an important predecessor.

Look closer

What can private letters tell us about a historical figure that published books cannot?
Why might a 20th-century suffragist have collected and preserved Wollstonecraft's personal letters?
What does the plain, unmarked cover of this book suggest about how it was used or kept?

This letter is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Mary Wollstonecraft on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.