Born: 16 August 1804, United States
Died: 9 July 1847
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Dorothy Quillinan
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
William Wordsworth relied on his sister, wife, and daughter throughout his career. While the latter two (Mary and Dora, respectively) acted as his literary agents, his sister Dorothy was an uncredited editor, as well as transcriber and, after his death, literary executor. Wordsworth repeatedly used Dorothy’s own words without attribution, including descriptions in his successful guide book A Guide through the District of the Lakes and segments from her journals. His famed poem Daffodils uses a description originally written by Dorothy. Her own attempts to find a publisher for her Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland were unsuccessful and it was not published until almost 20 years after her own death.