Poet and letter-writer, later to become known as the 'Swan of Lichfield' was born into a clergical family in Derbyshire, moving to Lichfield at the age of seven. Thanks to her father, she was reading Shakespeare and Pope by the age of three, and reciting Milton at the age of nine. Her sister Sarah died at the age of 20 and Anna became close to a foster sister, Honora Sneyd. She also died young, of consumption, and her loss was grieved for the rest of Anna's life. Honora is idealised in many of Anna's poems, and the poet herself - although recieving much male attention - was to remain single. By the 1770s, a literary circle had sprung up at the Seward home, a circle which included Erasmus Darwin. Although she was acquainted with Lichfield's famous son, Dr Johnson, their relationship was one of vexation and rebuke. She resented his derisive comments about Lichfield, the town which had nurtured him, and his treatment of the Porter family - friends of Anna whom Johnson had married into. Despite this, Johnson invited her to his deathbed and although she disliked his character, she praised his literary endeavours after his death. Her relationship with Dr J's biographer Boswell also declined over what she saw as his uncritical adulation. She wrote a biography herself, 'Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin', and continued throughout her life to publish both poetry and criticism. She lived in the Bishop's Palace, caring for her elderly parents, and staying on in the Palace on a good income after their deaths. She won acclaim for her 'Elegy on Captain Cook', and her criticism was so influential that even George Washington corresponded with her to protest over her complaints about his conduct. Her other correspondents included Josiah Wedgewood, William Hayley, Humphrey Repton and Walter Scott, and the 'Ladies of Llangollen'. She died of scorbutic fever and was buried in the Cathedral, in the shadow of which she had lived for most of her life.