At the Circulating Library

Author: Mrs. Harcourt-Roe

Author: Mrs. Harcourt-Roe (1848–1913)

Alternate Name(s): Elizabeth Augusta Sibella Cox (maiden name); Mrs. Harcourt (pseudonuym)

Biography: Elizabeth Augusta Sibella Roe was born in 1848 in Portsea, the daughter of naval officer Henry Laird Cox. She spent several years of her childhood in Australia before the family returned to London. In 1871, she married the insurance clerk (later accountant) Harcourt James Roe and the couple had three children. As "Mrs. J. Harcourt," she wrote the novel A Friend in Ten Thousand (1884) and she followed with several more moderately successful novels settling on "Mrs. Harcourt-Roe" as her pen name. She also contributed serials and stories to the periodical press. The family led a peripetic life living in Camberwell, Ryde, Hound, and ultimately Hurst, Berkshire. She died on 25 April 1913 in Hurst.

References: British Census (1871, 1881, 1901, 1911); Ray Girvan, "Mrs. Harcourt Roe," JSBlog: Journal of a Southern Bookreader (25 May 2015); Literary Year-Book (1906, 1908); Reading Standard (3 May 1913)

Fiction Titles:

1. A Friend in Ten Thousand: A Novel.  2 vol.  London: Remington, 1884.
2. The Bachelor Vicar of Newforth.  2 vol.  London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1885.
3. Whose Wife?.  1 vol.  London: W. H. Allen, 1888.
4. A Man of Mystery.  1 vol.  London: James Blackwood, 1893.
5. The Silent Room.  1 vol.  London: Skeffington, 1895.
6. The Romance of Mrs. Wodehouse.  1 vol.  London: Hutchinson, 1896.