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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Jane Wylde

Author: Jane Wylde (1837–1900)

Alternate Name(s): Shuttleworth (maiden name); Wylde (married name); Leask (married name)

Biography: Jane Wylde was born in 1837 in London, the daughter Henry Shuttleworth and Jane Smith. She was the wife of Henry Wylde (1822–1890), composer, doctor of music, Gresham professor of music (1863), and founder of the London Academy of Music (in 1861). The couple had three children: Edith (born 1859), Aimee (born 1861), and Henry (born 1868). Her husband died in 1890 after a short illness. In 1894, she married Alexander Ritchie Leask (1853–1913), a civil engineer. Wylde wrote two sensational novels, Severed Ties (1889) and In Quest of a Name (1895). She died in 1900.

References: British Census (1881, 1891); DNB (Henry Wylde); pers inf (Ana Squire); Times (15 March 1890, 16 February 1900)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Severed Ties: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: F. V. White, 1889.
  2. In Quest of a Name.  1 vol.  London: Tower Publishing Co., 1895.