
Luke Batterham
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Senior Valuer
JOHN NEWTON OF OLNEY ON COWPER'S PUBLISHER, JOSEPH JOHNSON. Johnson, the leading radical publisher of the 1790s, acted as agent, editor and publisher to Newton's friend Cowper, as well as being prime mover behind publication of Paine's Rights of Man, commissioning plates from William Blake, publishing the early works of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and much else. In 1793 he published Newton's Letters to a Wife, in two volumes, compiled in the aftermath of his wife's death in 1790. The letters in the first volume were written between 1750 and 1754 and describe his three voyages to Africa as a slaver; while the second describes life after conversion. They have been greatly admired by, among others, Edward FitzGerald. The Miss Catlett referred to at the end is his niece and adopted daughter, Eliza, who was to look after him in old age.