Author: May Kelly
Author: May Kelly (1843–1910)
Alternate Name(s): Mary J. Spence (maiden name); Mrs. Tom Kelly (familiar name)
Biography: Mary [May] Jane Kelly was born in 1843 in Burgh, Cumberland, the daughter of Peter Spence and his wife Agnes (née Mudie). Her father was a chemist who perfected a means for producing alum from colliery waste, a process that made him wealth. On 5 April 1873, she married artist Tom Kelly. Her husband also came from wealth and the couple turned their hands to literature. Kelly wrote two novels Time and Chance (1882) and A Leddy in her Ain Richt (1896), a play produced in 1904, and several other works, a few illustrated by her husband. Her husband died suddenly after a two-day illness on 30 June 1893. Kelly lived with her widowed sister and died on 11 November 1910 in Merstham, Surrey.
Author Tags:
References: Allibone; Bedfordshire Mercury (11 November 1910); British Census (1881, 1891, 1901); Probate
Fiction Titles:
- Time and Chance: A Novel. 3 vol. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1882.
- A Leddy in her Ain Richt. 1 vol. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1896.