• And don’t miss Why Writing Takes so Long here on this site.
• “A very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed….”
• Irma cannot defeat cats with opposable thumbs
• Robert Southey and the Cats of Greta Hall
• Eighteenth-Century Literary Cats
• The Cat Author: Emily Bronte
• The Character of Cats: Depictions in Georgian and Regency Literature

To celebrate Ginger Cat Appreciation Day, we’re looking at the relationship between writers and their cats!

And don’t miss Why Writing Takes so Long here on this site.

“A very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed….”

Lexicographer and writer, Dr Johnson, was a cat lover. It was whilst he was in residence at 17 Gough Square, London, that he owned his most well-known cat, Hodge. To this day a statue of Hodge, appropriately seated on a dictionary, forms part of a memorial to the great man, at the far end of the square where he once lived. 

Irma cannot defeat cats with opposable thumbs

Ah, Internets, how I missed you. An outage of just over 24 hours had me in full white-knuckle withdrawal mode. I don’t know how the Harvey/Irma folks can stand it. Take, for instance, the staff of the Hemingway Home and Museum on Key West. Key West, like all of the Florida Keys, was smack in Irma’s path, and the Overseas Highway, its sole road linking it to the mainland, was sure to be underwater leaving Key West without means of resupply. Residents were ordered by the governor to evacuate the Keys. The National Weather Service minced no words, warning that “nowhere in the Florida Keys will be safe” from Irma. Governor Rick Scott minced even fewer words: “You will not survive.”

Robert Southey and the Cats of Greta Hall

Born of humble origins in 1774, Robert Southey went on to become Poet Laureate of England from 1813 until his death in 1843.  A contemporary of 19^th century Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he was an incredibly prolific writer, both of poetry and of prose.  He was also a great lover of cats, as evidenced in his vast correspondence with friends and family

Eighteenth-Century Literary Cats

The eighteenth century is often counted as the beginning of the modern era. Many attitudes and customs, associated with the Middle Ages, were replaced by approaches that we recognise as closely akin to our modern ways of doing things. I’m going to focus on one of these — a change in attitude towards domestic animals as pets — with particular reference to cats and their association with significant figures in the literary world.

The Cat Author: Emily Bronte

The Cat
I can say with sincerity that I like cats; also I can give very good reasons why those who despise them are wrong.
A cat is an animal who has more human feelings than almost any other being. We cannot sustain a comparison with the dog, it is infinitely too good; but the cat, although it differs in some physical points, is extremely like us in disposition.

The Character of Cats: Depictions in Georgian and Regency Literature

As popular a pet as cats are in modern day households, it was the dog that dominated the home and hearth of the 18^th and early 19^th century.  Cats had their admirers, of course, amongst whom were such literary luminaries as Samuel Johnson and Lord Byron, but in general, their primary value lay in their ability to keep the premises free from vermin.