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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Elinor Louisa Huddart

Author: Elinor Louisa Huddart (1853–1902)

Alternate Name(s): Elinor Aitch (pseudonym); Louisa Ronile (pseudonym); Elinor Hume (pseudonym)

Biography: Elinor Louisa Huddart was born in 1853 in Wales, the daughter of George Augustus Huddart and Elinor Sophia Magniac. Her grandfather was Sir Joseph Huddart (d. 1841) and her great-grandfather was Captain Joseph Huddart (1741–1816) of the East Indian Company. As an adolescent, her parents separated and she moved with her mother and siblings to Hampshire. In 1878, she met the young George Bernard Shaw when she took singing lessons from his mother. The two struck up a sixteen-year correspondence when she asked Shaw to comment on her first novel Cheer or Kill (1878) (which he panned). She followed with five more undistinguished novels under a series of pseudonyms. She lived in London, often residing with one or more sisters. Huddart never married and died in 1902.

Author Tags:

References: Blain; British Census (1861, 1881, 1891, 1901); Betty Hugo, "Very Innocent Epistles: The Letters of Elinor Huddart to Shaw," Shaw (1990)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Cheer or Kill: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Charing Cross Publishing Co., 1878.
  2. Via Crucis: A Novel.  2 vol.  London: Remington, 1882.
  3. My Heart and I: A Novel.  1 vol.  London: Bentley, 1883.
  4. Commonplace Sinners: A Novel.  2 vol.  London: Remington, 1885.
  5. A Modern Milkmaid: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Digby, Long, 1890.
  6. Leslie: A Novel.  1 vol.  London: Digby, Long, 1891.