A Journal to Stella

A Journal to Stella is a work by Jonathan Swift first partly published posthumously in 1766. It is a collection of letters that Swift wrote for Esther Johnson, his close friend and secret wife.

Composition and dating

It consists of 65 letters to his friend, Esther Johnson, whom he called Stella and whom he may have secretly married. They were written between 1710 and 1713, from various locations in England. Though clearly intended for Stella's eyes, the letters were sometimes addressed to her companion Rebecca Dingley.

Persons mentioned in the letters

Amongst the references to contemporaries of Dean Swift, frequent mention is made of Lady Elizabeth Germain.^[1] There is also mention of St. George Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, an old friend who by some accounts secretly married Swift to Stella in 1716.

Notes

^ Courtney, William Prideaux (1890). "Germain, Elizabeth" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 21. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

Journal to Stella – e-text at the University of Adelaide

[DNB00-1] Courtney, William Prideaux (1890). "Germain, Elizabeth" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 21. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[1]