Hester Lynch Thrale's works

Hester was a prolific writer of verses. However books came later. Mrs. Piozzi in Italy at Florence was playing at literature with the poetasters of The Florence Miscellany and The British Album which were published in November 1785 when she was working at the Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson. Her book of anecdotes was written in Florence in October, 1785, and published in March 1786. This thrust her into open rivalry with James Boswell, who also penned a biographical book of Johnson. Mrs Elizabeth Montagu said of Hester's book…

Your Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson my dear Madam are very different to Mr. Boswells. Yours do honour to the subject, the Writer & harm to no one.

Although less accurate in some details than Boswell's, her account show the more human and affectionate side of Johnson's nature. On 10 March 1787 Hester and Gabriel Piozzi returned to England. The breach with Boswell was further widened in March 1788 her two-volume edition of Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. was published by Cadell. The first edition consisted of 2,000 copies, for which Boswell says that she received £500.

In August 1788, Hester and Gabriel traveled to Exmouth, where they composed an Occasional Prologue for the local theatre.

After the success of Anecdotes and Letters, Hester began work on a new two-volume book Observations and reflections made in the course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany. This was published by Cadell and Strahan in June 1789.

In April 1794 Hester published her book The British Synonymy, or an Attempt to Regulate the Choice of words in Familiar Conversation to mixed reviews.

On 2 January 1795 Hester wrote in Thraliana …

Denbigh: My Synonymes have been review'd at last--the Critics are all civil for ought I see, & nearly just, except when they say that Johnson left some Fragments of A Work upon Synonymy--of which God knows I never heard till now one Syllable, nor had he and in all the time we lived together, any Conversation upon the Subject.

1801 saw the last of her major literary works, called Retrospection or a Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations and their Consequences which the last Eighteen Hundred Years have presented to the view of mankind. The book was not a success, and received little attention.

Hester's last - and unpublished - work was Lydford Redivivus or A Granddame's Garrulity prepared in 1815. This was a compilation of 'the names of men and women and their derivations'.