Dorothy Wordsworth

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855), English diarist born in Cockermouth, Cumberland. From 1795 on she kept house for her brother, the poet William Wordsworth, at Racedown, Alfoxton Park, and Grasmere. Her Journals, begun in 1798, describe the Wordsworth's household, their friends, (including the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and their travels. These accounts are valuable source material on William, frequently offering illuminating insights into the themes and inspirations of his early poetry. The Journals are also first-rate literature in their own right, as perceptive descriptions of nature and people written in a sensitive, poetic style. In 1829 Dorothy Wordsworth began to suffer progressive mental illness, from which she never recovered.