Eliza Haywood

Haywood seems to have started her career, not as a writer, but as an actress, and she worked for a while in in the mid 1710s in Dublin, which was where a lot of performers learned their craft before going on to London, as she did by 1717. She did not act much after the 1710s, but she stayed in touch with the theater scene in London, occasionally writing plays, and also performing every once in a while. In thee 1730s, she also wrote a book called The Dramatic Historiographer, which was a kind of companion to the current theater offerings in London, offering plot summaries and criticism of the plays that were staged in the period.

This engraving of Eliza Haywood, probably done from a painting that is now lost, is the only confirmed image of her from her own lifetime. It was done around 1720, at the start of Haywood's career as a writer.
This engraving of Eliza Haywood, probably done from a painting that is now lost, is the only confirmed image of her from her own lifetime. It was done around 1720, at the start of Haywood’s career as a writer.