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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Frances Mayne

Author: Frances Mayne (1811–1855)

Alternate Name(s): "A Friend of the People" (pseudonym)

Biography: Frances Mayne was born on 27 March 1811 in Limpsfield, the daughter of clergyman Robert Mayne and his wife Charlotte Cuninghame Graham. She never married and appears to have lived a retired life in rural Surrey. In the 1850s, she edited the weekly periodical True Briton which aimed to offer higher-brow fare for working class readers. Her only novel Jane Rutherford (1854) appeared in its pages. Mayne also published a biography of Nicholas I and a history of arctic exploration. She died suddenly on 26 April 1855 in Farncombe. A promising literary career cut short.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1841, 1851); Morning Chronicle (1 May 1855)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Jane Rutherford: or, The Miners' Strike.  1 vol.  London: Clarke, Beeton, & Co., 1854.