Anne Slack (née Fisher)(1719-1778)

Before she married the Newcastle-upon-Tyne printer Thomas Slack, Anne Fisher had established and managed an evening school in Newcastle’s St. Nicholas’s Church Yard for young working women who wanted to develop their literacy skills. In 1750 she published “A New Grammar and Spelling Book” which established her as Britain’s first female grammarian in modern English and the book passed through forty editions. These appeared under her professional name, Anne Fisher, and are the fourth most re-printed grammar publications in the eighteenth century.

In the 1760s and 1770s the Slack’s establishment known as the ‘Print Shop’ acted as a meeting point for intellectual and literary figures associated with the town and region. The relationship between Anne and the Irish actor and poet John Cunningham particularly exemplifies the proximity between print culture and the stage. Their correspondence also provides insights into the working practices of the Slacks’ business, showing that Anne was perfectly capable of running operations when her husband was out of town and that she was an important member of the local business community in her own right.