Joanna Baillie stands as the most significant Romantic period British woman playwright as well as being one of the period's most notable women critics. Scottish by birth, Baillie moved about with her family after her father's death until her brother inherited a London medical practice from his uncle. Eventually settling in Hampstead, Baillie widened her circle of literary acquaintances to include numerous prominent figures. Her own first publication was an anonymous volume, Poems: Wherein It Is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and Rustic Manners, Etc. (1790). The first volume of A Series of Plays: In Which It Is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind. Each Passion Being the Subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy (1798), with its "Introductory Discourse," was also published anonymously, sparking much speculation about the author. Baillie added additional volumes to this work in 1802 and 1812, with this final volume featuring the preface "To the Reader." Another collection, Miscellaneous Plays, appeared in 1804 and included her tragedy Romiero, which she defended in Fraser's Magazine (December 1836). Baillie meant her plays for the stage, but though they were widely read, only De Monfort was much staged. Nevertheless, Baillie continued her project, adding more plays and extending some of those already published, until 1836, when her three volume collection Dramas appeared. Along with drama and dramatic theory, Baillie published narrative poetry, including Metrical Legends of Exalted Characters (1821). Ahalya Baee, another narrative poem, appeared in 1849. She also published a theological tract, A View of the General Tenour of the New Testament, examining the nature and dignity of Jesus Christ (1831). Finally she agreed to the Longmans' request to collect and edit her entire opus for The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Joanna Baillie, Complete in One Volume, published in 1851, the year she died.