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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Elizabeth Mary Alford

Author: Elizabeth Mary Alford (1840–1905)

Biography: Elizabeth Mary Alford was born in 1840 in Taunton, the daughter of surgeon Henry Alford (1806–1898) and his first wife Elizabeth Jane Pring. Her father's sister Frances was the wife of Henry Alford, D.D. (1810–1871), later the Dean of Canterbury. Hers was a literary household: her sister Henrietta and her brother Daniel both published poetry. Alford's first novel Netherton-on-Sea (1869) benefited from the assistance of her uncle, "Beginning as adviser he became joint author, and... many incidents in his own life, many early recollections and scenes with which he was familiar were described in this novel." She followed with five more novels and a collection of poems. Alford never married and lived in Taunton her entire life with her father and her sister. She died in 1905.

References: Fanny Alford, Life, Journals and Letters of Henry Alford, D.D., Late Dean of Canterbury (Rivingtons, 1873); British Census (1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901); Times (9 September 1911)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Netherton-on-Sea: A Story.  3 vol.  London: Tinsley Brothers, 1869.
  2. Margaret: The Story of my Life from Five to Twenty-Five.  1 vol.  London: Darton and Hodge, 1871.
  3. The Fair Maid of Taunton: A Tale of the Siege.  1 vol.  London: Samuel Tinsley, 1878.
  4. Honor.  3 vol.  London: Tinsley Brothers, 1880.
  5. The Romance of Coombehurst.  2 vol.  Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1883.
  6. A Modern Don Quixote.  1 vol.  London: S. P. C. K., 1889.
  7. Stanhurst.  1 vol.  London: S. B. Barrett, 1893.