Small image of a man handing a book to a women across a counter.

At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Jessie Bedford

Author: Jessie Bedford (1853–1918)

Alternate Name(s): Elizabeth Godfrey (pseudonym)

Biography: Jessie Bedford was born in 1853 in Twyford, Hampshire, the daughter of Rev. James Bedford, a clergyman, educator, and author. She was educated at home and as a young woman travelled to Germany. After the death of her father, Bedford began writing fiction under the pseudonym "Elizabeth Godfrey" beginning with Twixt Wood and Sea (1892), a novel in which the heroine is married to a profligate gambler and writer of Zolaesque novels. She went on to write about ten more. During her life, Bedford had a wide circle of literary friends including Lucas Malet, Margaret Roberts, Swinburne, and Theodore Watts-Dunton. She resided near Bournemouth, never married, and died in 1918.

References: British Census (1881); DNB; The Literary World (1 June 1902); Times (24 May 1918)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Twixt Wood and Sea: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Chapman and Hall, 1892.
  2. Cornish Diamonds.  2 vol.  London: Bentley, 1895.
  3. Poor Human Nature.  1 vol.  London: Grant Richards, 1898.
  4. A Stolen Idea: A Novel.  1 vol.  London: Jarrold and Son, 1899.
  5. The Harp of Life.  1 vol.  London: Grant Richards, 1900.