What does independent mean in this following sentence? Does it mean sort of like “despite”?
“I flatter myself that few biographers have entered upon such a work as this, with more advantages; independent of literary abilities, in which I am not vain enough to compare myself with some great names who have gone before me in this kind of writing.”
Hi cooliegirly,
You asked:
It sounds a little unusual to me to use the word independent in this context but I think you have the right idea when you suggest despite. Perhaps another way would be to say: regardless of/aside from literary abilities. I think that despite suggests that the literary abilities are there but not used and the idea, as I see it, is that literay abilities are to be disregarded and not brought into the comment.
Hopeful of helping.
Alan
Yeah, I didn’t mean it that way, either. I think I misused “despite”, sorry about that 
thank you for pointing that out, Alan.
CG
To me that’s a really snarled-up sentence, and is not indicative of a good, clear writer. I think Alan is right that “independent of” means something like “regardless of”. (In fact, we do use “independent of” in this way often, in the US at least. It’s just not gracefully used in this sentence. Another way to say it would be “literary abilities aside…”