MRS. PRISCILLA WAKEFIELD. 1751–1832. Member of Society of Friends;
philanthropic work among the poor. Author: Juvenile Anecdotes;
Juvenile Travellers; Conversations; Introduction to Botany;
Introduction to Insects; Present Condition of Female Sex, with
Suggestions for Its Improvement; Life of William Penn. Reference:
D. N. B.[42]
FRANCES BURNEY (MADAME D’ARBLAY). 1752–1840. Reference: D. N. B.
WILLIAM FORDYCE MAVOR. 1758–1837. Ed. 1799, juvenile periodical for
Walker, Newbery. Reference: D. N. B.
JOANNA BAILLIE. 1762–1851. Work among the poor made her known as Lady
Bountiful. Reference: D. N. B.
JEREMIAH JOYCE. 1763–1816. Author: Lectures on the Microscope.
MRS. JANE MARCET. 1769–1858. Macaulay wrote: “Every girl who has
read Mrs. Marcet’s little dialogues on political economy could
teach Montague or Walpole many fine lessons in finance.” Author:
Scientific text-books; Conversations on Chemistry intended for the
Female Sex; Conversations on Political Economy, imitated by Harriet
Martineau in her Illustrations of Political Economy. Reference: D.
N. B.
MRS. BARBARA HOFLAND. 1770–1844. Imitated the Edgeworth style. Author:
Emily; The Son of a Genius; Tales of a Manor; Young Crusoe.
Reference: D. N. B.
MRS. MARY MARTHA SHERWOOD. 1775–1851. Stories and tracts evangelical
in tone. With her sister, Mrs. Cameron, invented a type of story
for rich and for poor. Author: The Fairchild Family (intended for
the middle classes); Little Henry and His Bearer. Reference: _New
Review_ (May 18, 1843); Life of Mrs. Sherwood by her daughter; D.
N. B. An edition of The Fairchild Family, New York, Stokes, $1.50.
JANE PORTER. 1776–1850. Reference: D. N. B.
MARIA HACK. 1778–1844. Quaker parentage. A believer in the “walk”
species of literature. Author: Winter Evenings, or Tales of
Travellers; First Lessons in English Grammar; Harry Beaufoy, or the
Pupil of Nature. Reference: D. N. B.
MRS. ELIZABETH PENROSE. 1780–1837. Pseud. Mrs. Markham. Daughter of
a rector. One critic wrote: “Mrs. Penrose adapted her history to
what she considered the needs of the young, and omitted scenes of
cruelty and fraud, as hurtful to children, and party politics after
the Revolution as too complicated for them to learn.” Author: Began
school histories in 1823; these were brought up to date afterward
by Mary Howitt. Moral Tales and Sermons for Children. Reference: D.
N. B.
JOHN WILSON CROKER. 1780–1857. One of the founders of the _Quarterly
Review_; reviewed abusively Keats’s Endymion. Author: Stories from
the History of England, 1817, which supplied Scott with the idea
for his Tales of a Grandfather; Irish Tales. Reference: Jenning’s
Diaries and Correspondence of Croker (London, 1884); Internat.
Encyclo.
LADY MARIA CALLCOTT. 1785–1842. Author: Little Arthur’s History of
England. Reference: D. N. B.
MARY RUSSELL MITFORD. 1787–1855. Careful detail of description, akin
to Dutch style of painting. Author: Tragedies; Village Stories;
Juvenile Spectator. She was among the first women to adopt writing
as a profession. Miss Yonge speaks of her “writing so deliciously
of children,” but she “could not write for them.” Reference: D. N.
B.; Recollections; Letters.
AGNES STRICKLAND. 1796–1874. “With the exception of Jane Porter, whom
she visited at Bristol, and with whom she carried on a frequent
correspondence, and a casual meeting with Macaulay, whom she found
congenial, she came little in contact with the authors of the day.”
Author: Lives of the Queens of England; Two Rival Crusoes. [Note
the hybrid type of story that sprung up around the real Robinson
Crusoe.] Edited Fisher’s Juvenile Scrap Book, 1837–1839. Reference:
D. N. B.
MRS. MAY SEWELL. 1797–1884. Left Society of Friends for the Church
of England. Wrote homely ballads. _Vide_ daughter, Anna Sewell.
Author: Her ballad, Mother’s Last Words, circulated about 1,088,000
copies when it first appeared. Reference: Mod. Biog.
MARY HOWITT. 1799–1888. Authorship linked with that of her husband. In
1837 began writing children’s stories and poems. Her daughter, Anna
Mary, also was a writer of children’s books. Author: Translator of
Fredrika Bremer’s novels; editor, Fisher’s Drawingroom Scrap Book.
Reference: Reminiscences of My Later Life (_Good Words_, 1886); D.
N. B.
CATHERINE SINCLAIR. 1800–1864. Fourth daughter of Sir John Sinclair.
Her work considered the beginning of the modern spirit. A friend
of Scott. Author: Holiday House; Modern Accomplishment; Modern
Society; Modern Flirtations. Reference: A Brief Tribute to C. S.
(Pamphlet); D. N. B.
G. P. R. JAMES. 1801–1860. Influenced by Scott and encouraged by
Irving. Thackeray parodied him in Barbazure, by G. P. R. Jeames,
Esq., in Novels by Eminent Hands; also in Book of Snobs (chaps. ii
and xvi). Author of a long list of novels.
HARRIET MARTINEAU. 1802–1876. Reference: D. N. B.
MRS. MARGARET SCOTT GATTY. 1809–1873. She was forty-two before she
began to publish. _Vide_ Ewing. Author: Aunt Judy Tales; Parables
of Nature; 1866--_Aunt Judy Magazine_ (monthly), continued after
her death, with her daughter as editor; stopped in 1885. Reference:
Life in ed. Parables (Everyman’s Library); _Illustrated London
News_, Oct. 18, 1873; _Athenæum_, Oct. 11, 1873, p. 464; D. N. B.
ANNA SEWELL. 1820–1878. Author: Black Beauty (1877). Reference: D. N. B.
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE. 1823-. Author: Heir of Redclyffe; The Kings of
England; The Chaplet of Pearls.
MRS. MARY LOUISA WHATELEY. 1824–1889. Went to Cairo and lived from
1861–1889, where she had a Moslem school. Wrote chiefly about
Egypt. Fairy tale influence. Author: Reverses; or, the Fairfax
Family. Reference: Hays’ Women of To-day; London _Times_ (March 12,
1889).
MRS. DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK. 1826–1887. Pseudo-fairy tale writer.
Author: Adventures of a Brownie, etc.
JULIANA HORATIO EWING. 1841–1885. Reference: J. H. Ewing and Her Books,
by Horatia K. T. Gatty; D. N. B.
ANN FRASER TYTLER. Daughter of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord
Woodhouselel. Author: Leila on the Island; Leila in England; Leila
at Home.