Talk:Lucy Aikin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

[edit] Proof that Lucy Aikin is Mary Godolphin?

I know this seems like a silly question... but where is the proof that Aikin and Godolphin are actually one in the same? I've read plenty of sites, and texts, that indicate she is, but none actually site how this determination was made. I don't see any indication in her obituraries, book reviews, letters (her own, or other people's about her), or in any of the memoirs that are written about her.

It seems like somewhere along the line someone assumed they were one in the same, and everyone's worked with that assumption?

Does anyone know who originally came to the conclusion that they are the same person? Or, where I might find something to support it? The earliest mention I see of an acknowledgement of Mary Godolphin being Lucy Aikin is in 1885. William Cushing's Initials and Pseudonyms: Dictionary of Literary Disguises (page 118): "Godolphin, Mary. Lucy Aikin. Evenings at home in words of one syllable... L. 1869." (The ellipses are his, not mine.)

Chyken 17:25, 4 December 2007 (UTC)