Interview

1. Where are you from and what is your family like?

            I was born in Glasgow, Scotland but I grew up in England until I moved to New York between 1757 and 1768. When I was fourteen, I returned to Glasgow where I met and married my husband, Reverend James Grant, who was the minister of Laggan in Inverness-shire. I had twelve children, eight of whom were alive when my husband perished in 1801. Deep in debt and without a job, I turned to writing to pay the bills and deal with my grief. I had friends of status who had 3000 people subscribe to my first volume of verse.

            My life continued to grow more grim as I continued to age. In 1820, I fell and became diabled. It took my friend Walter Scott five years to obtain a small pension for me. There were successive deaths of all my children except my dead son, John-Peter Grant who in 1844 published my autobiography and letters.

2. What events in your early life got you interested in the arts?

            During my time in New York, I read a good deal. My friend/mentor, Catalina Schuyler introduced me to such writers as Shakespeare, Pope, Addison, and other writers. I had no real accomplishments in my life but I loved the natural world and I had experienced much of it.

            The real thing that got me writing though was the death of my husband. I had always had a knack for writing, but with no other way to support my children, writing became my main source of income. Writing was also the way I let out my grief as I lost my husband and almost all of my children.

3. What role did mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?

            My mentor, Catalina Schuyler, very much helped develop my interests and talents as an artist. Catalina introduced me to such writers as Shakespeare, Pope, Addison, as well as other writers. Catalina was a friend to me as well. She inspired me to read which is one of the most important things a writer can do besides experience which I had plenty of.

4. What was the world of art like in your particular art field when you entered it?

            There were not many women who were writers during the enlightenment era. Two other women writers were popular during the enlightenment era, Elizabeth Hamilton and Christian Isobel Johnstone. Our writing very much influenced the world and women. Most people were exploring the ideas or reason and science in their writing.

            The enlightenment era was known as “The Age of Reason” but it was also a great time for many people to create. My poetry, letters, and essays were about the Highlands and all of my personal experiences.

5. How did the major cultural, economic, and political situations impact your work?

            I wrote an entire book on my time in the United States before the revolution, it was Memoirs of an American Lady. I often described the disappearance of a sizable portion of the Highland population. I feared and desired assimilation for these people. I often talked of Scottish history, such as the adventures of Bonnie Prince Charles.

            I was politically conservative, as in I was for the church and the monarchy and not for the principles of the French revolution, and I often wrote of this. I started a small school in Edinburgh and would entertain Scottish writers of persuasion in my home.

6.  What were your major accomplishments and methods you used in your art?

            The methods I used in my art were writing from what I knew. I re-wrote Gaelic songs. I told of Scottish history. I wrote of the Highlands. I wrote of my memories, my experiences, my life.

            My major accomplishments were definitely all of my published works:

Poems on various subjects. 1803.
Letters from the mountains. 3 vols, 1807.
The Highlanders and other poems. 1808, 1810, 1813.
Memoirs of an American lady [Catalina Schuyler]; with sketches of manners and scenery in America. 2 vols, 1808.
Essays on the superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland. 2 vols, 1811.
Eighteen-hundred and thirteen: a poem in two parts. 1814.
Popular models and impressive warnings for the sons and daughters of industry. 2 vols, 1815.
Blue bell of Scotland. 1835?
The touchstone: or the claims and privileges of true religion briefly considered. 1842.
Memoir and correspondence of Mrs. Grant, ed. J. P. Grant. 3 vols, 1844.
Letters concerning Highland affairs in the 18th century. 1896.

7. What were the key opportunities that led to turning points in your life and art?

            There were many key opputunities that led to turning points in my life and art. Traveling as a child gave me much landscape and memories in which to write from. My influential friends who helped me get my books published and read provided me with the opurtunity to become known. Catalina Schuyler showed me the best writers and I began to learn from them.

            Another great opportunity was starting my smalls school and entertaining many Scottish writers of political persuasion. This helped me to form my own beliefs as I saw how much I disagreed with their beliefs.

8. What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?

            There were many hardships in my life. My husband died and left me in debt and with eight children to care for. I lived longer than all of my children but one. I had to work hard to keep friends of status who would promote my works and help me publish. I had to care for my children and find time to write.

            I became disabled in my later years and I had no one to care for me. It took five years for my friend Walter Scott to get me a small pension which would be the only steady income I would receive.

9.  Who are people that admire you both in the arts and beyond why do they inspire you?

            My husband, Reverend James Grant, very much inspired me. His death, as well as the death of all of my children, scarred me in ways that never truly healed. Life without them was hard. The pain that their deaths left behind inspired me to write to pay the bills, to write to end the grief.

            Walter Scott inspired me because he was there for me as I started my school. Walter helped me receive me pensions and he spoke very highly of me. He wrote of me and said, Walter Scott wrote of her: “Her literary works although composed amidst misfortune and privation, are written at once with simplicity and force, and uniformly bear the stamp of a virtuous and courageous mind.”

10. What personal stories (anecdotes) best illustrate how you became successful in the arts?

            I was successful in the arts because I had had experience. I had the experience of my heart breaking over and over again as my husband and children died. I also had the experience of travel. I lived all over Scotland, New England, and New York.

            I was also successful because of the help of my friends. My friends used their status to help me not only get my books published, but to also have my books read.


Moody, Ellen. "Foremother Poet: Anne Grant (nee Macivar) (1755-1853)." Ellen and Jim Have a Blog, Two. N.p., 02 04 2011. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. <http://ellenandjim.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/foremother-poet-anne-grant-nee-macivar-1755-1853/>.