Listening time: 12 minutes. This is a biography of an artist written by a poet. It’s also a meditation on creativity in life and art.

Mary Granville Pendarves Delany began life with the eighteenth century which she nearly spanned (1700-1788). She may also have begun as the passive subject of biographical research, but she soon steps out of the manuscripts, collages and pages and into life, effortlessly traversing intervening centuries as if they were a puddle to be crossed when leaving a carriage.

Delicately lift the hem of one’s silk gown a modest inch or two to avoid its being muddied, and here we are and how do you do.

Enjoy this podcast review and thank you for listening. I hope it will inspire you to read Molly’s marvelous account of Mary’s life and to begin your own life’s work, if you haven’t already.

And feel free to read the full written text, complete with additional illustrated quotations.