Ellen Wood (author)

Template:Use British English Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox writer Ellen Wood (née Price) (17 January 1814 – 10 February 1887), better known as Mrs. Henry Wood, was an English novelist. She is best remembered for her 1861 novel East Lynne. Many of her books sold well internationally and were widely read in the United States. In her time, she surpassed Charles Dickens in fame in Australia.<ref>Dinah Birch and Katy Hooper, The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 783.</ref>

Life

Price was born in Worcester, on 17 January 1814. In 1836 she married Henry Wood, who worked in the banking and shipping trade in Dauphiné in the south of France, where they lived for 20 years.<ref name="lit enc">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the failure of Wood's business, the family (including four children) returned to England and settled in Upper Norwood near London, where Ellen Wood turned to writing. This supported the family. Henry Wood died in 1866. She wrote over 30 novels, many of which (especially East Lynne) enjoyed remarkable popularity. Among the best known are Danesbury House, Oswald Cray, Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles, The Channings, Lord Oakburn's Daughters and The Shadow of Ashlydyat. Her writing tone would be described as "conservative and Christian",<ref>Dinah Birch, Katy Hooper. The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 783.</ref> occasionally expressing religious rhetoric.<ref>Palmer, B. (1 February 2011). Ellen Wood, Religious Feeling, and Sensation. In Women's Authorship and Editorship in Victorian Culture: Sensational Strategies. : Oxford University Press. {{#invoke:CS1 identifiers|main|_template=doi}}.</ref>

In 1867, Wood purchased the English magazine Argosy, which had been founded by Alexander Strahan in 1865.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She wrote much of the magazine herself, but other contributors included Hesba Stretton, Julia Kavanagh, Christina Rossetti, Sarah Doudney and Rosa Nouchette Carey. Wood continued as its editor until her death in 1887, when her son Charles Wood took over.<ref name="Argosy">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}; ODNB entry: oxforddnb.com Retrieved 31 May 2011.</ref>

Wood's works were translated into many languages, including French and Russian.<ref>Harper, Kenneth E., and Bradford A. Booth (1953). "Russian Translations of Nineteenth-Century English Fiction", Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 188–97.</ref> Leo Tolstoy, in a 9 March 1872 letter to his elder brother Sergei, noted that he was "reading Mrs. Wood's wonderful novel In the Maze".<ref>Complete Works of Tolstoy, PSS, 61:276.</ref><ref>Denis Goubert (1980), "Did Tolstoy Read East Lynne?", The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 22–39.</ref>

Wood wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including "The Ghost" (1867) and the oft-anthologized "Reality or Delusion?" (1868).<ref>R. A. Gilbert, Michael Cox The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories. Oxford University Press, 2003. Template:ISBN p. xvi.</ref><ref>J. L. Campbell Sr., "Mrs. Henry Wood", in E. F. Bleiler, ed., Supernatural Fiction Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1985. Template:ISBN pp.279–286.</ref>

She died of bronchitis.<ref name="obituaries">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Works

File:Mrs Henry Wood tomb.jpg

Mrs Henry Wood's tomb, Highgate Cemetery

These are the first published UK editions as catalogued by the British Library, with supplementary information from a specialist booksellers' catalogue.<ref>Women Writers R–Z (London: Jarndyce, 2012)</ref>

Further reading

• Malcolm Elwin. Victorian Wallflowers, Jonathan Cape, 1934. (chapter 7)
• Jennifer Phegley (2005), "Domesticating the Sensation Novelist: Ellen Price Wood as Author and Editor of the 'Argosy Magazine'," Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, pp. 180–198
• Thomas Seecombe (1900), "Wood, Ellen (1814–1887)," Dictionary of National Biography: Williamson-Worden, Vol. LXII, pp. 355–357
• Adeline Sergeant (1897), "Mrs. Henry Wood". In: Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign, London: Hurst & Blackett, pp. 174–192
• Charles W. Wood (1887), "Mrs. Henry Wood. In Memorian," The Argosy, Vol. XLIII, pp. 251, 334 and 442

External links

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• Works by Mrs. Henry Wood at Hathi Trust
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• Mrs. Henry Wood website
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• Mrs Henry Wood Bibliography Of Contributions To Periodicals
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