Elizabeth Smith and Varieties of Ascent

Abstract

After her premature death at 29, the friends of Elizabeth Smith published her translations of Klopstock and the Book of Job, along with a collection of her own writing, Fragments in Prose and Verse by a Young Lady Recently Deceased. This flurry of publication marked both the passing of a little-known genius, and the inconsolable sense of loss she left in her wake. The morbidity at the heart of these editorial choices is in sharp contrast to Smith's prodigious reputation as a fell walker. This essay examines her vitality and fearlessness, by considering her friend Thomas Wilkinson's account of her ascent of the Langdale Pikes, and her own descriptions of ascending Snowdon and Airy Force. Contrasting these scenes with the image of the beautiful autodidact writing and wasting away from consumption reveals a set of apparent psychosocial contradictions between Smith's status as a rising star in a pious Bluestocking network and her sheer physical prowess as a climber.