View source for Lucy Clifford

{{short description|English novelist and journalist}}
{{about||the English footballer|Lucy Ashworth-Clifford}}
{{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|image=Lucy-Lane-Clifford (cropped).jpg}}{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Lead too short|date=November 2025}}
'''Lucy Clifford''' (2 August 1846 – 21 April 1929), better known as '''Mrs. W. K. Clifford''', was an English novelist, playwright and journalist.

== Biography ==
Lucy Clifford was born '''Lucy Lane''' in London,<ref>{{Cite book |author=Chisholm, M. |title=Such Silver Currents |year=2002 |publisher=The Lutterworth Press |location=Cambridge |pages=8 |isbn=0-7188-3017-2}}</ref> the daughter of John Lane of [[Barbados]]. She married the mathematician and philosopher [[William Kingdon Clifford]] in 1875.

After his death in 1879, she earned a prominent place in English literary life as a novelist, and later as a dramatist. Her best-known story, ''Mrs. Keith's Crime'' (1885), centres on [[euthanasia]].<ref>''XIX Century Fiction''. Part I: A–K. Jarndyce Bloomsbury, 2019.</ref> It was followed by several other volumes, such as ''Aunt Anne'' (1892). She also wrote ''The Last Touches and Other Stories'' (1892) and ''Mere Stories'' (1896), and several plays between 1898 and 1925.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nicoll |first=Allardyce |title=English drama, 1900-1930; the beginnings of the modern period |url=https://archive.org/details/englishdrama190000alla |url-access=registration |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1973 |isbn=0-521-08416-4 |location=Cambridge [England] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/englishdrama190000alla/page/564 564] |oclc=588815}}</ref> She is perhaps most often remembered as the author of ''The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise'' (1882), a collection of stories she had written for her own children. The best known of these stories is "[[The New Mother]]".

Lucy Clifford also wrote cinematic adaptations of her short stories and plays. At least two films were produced from these: ''The Likeness of the Night'' (1922), directed by Percy Nash, and ''Eve's Lover'' (1925), directed by [[Roy Del Ruth]].

Her wide circle of literary friends included [[Henry James]]. She had two children. Her daughter Ethel Clifford (died 1959), later Lady Dilke as the wife of Sir Fisher Wentworth Dilke, 4th [[Dilke baronets|Baronet]] (1877–1944), was a published poet.
[[File:Grave of Lucy and William Clifford in Highgate Cemetery.jpg|thumb|Grave of Lucy and William Clifford in [[Highgate Cemetery]]]]
Lucy Clifford died in 1929, and was buried alongside her husband on the eastern side of [[Highgate Cemetery]], London.

In 2004, Gowan Dawson described Lucy's efforts to uphold the reputation of Clifford after his death:<ref>Gowan Dawson (2004) "Victorian periodicals and the making of William Kingdon Clifford's posthumous reputation", pp. 259–284 in ''Science Serialized'', Geoffrey Candor & Sally Shuttleworth editors, [[MIT Press]] {{ISBN|0-262-03318-6}}</ref>
:Clifford's disconsolate widow and two young daughters had been left totally unprovided for, and, notwithstanding a subsequent Testimonial Fund and Civil List pension, it was necessary for Lucy Clifford, who now owned the copyright of her late husband's works, to maximise the potential sales of his posthumous publications, not only by keeping Clifford in the public eye, but by ensuring that it was a generally positive (and thus marketable) portrayal of him that was presented.

==Selected writings==
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Mrs. Keith's Crime |year=1885 |publisher=Richard Bentley & Son |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/mrskeithscrimeb00keitgoog|quote=lucy clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise |year=1882 |publisher=Macmillan & Company| location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/anyhowstoriesmo01clifgoog|quote=lucy clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Aunt Anne |year=1892 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/auntanneanovel00clifgoog|quote=w k  clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Love Letters of a Worldly Woman |year=1892 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=Philadelphia |url=https://archive.org/details/lovelettersofwor00clifrich|quote=lucy clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=The Last Touches and Other Stories |year=1892 |publisher=/
|url=http://www.geocities.com/orwellus/lasttouchtitle.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022140834/http://geocities.com/orwellus/lasttouchtitle.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 October 2009}}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=A Flash of Summer: The Story of a Simple Woman's Life |year=1896 |publisher=D. Appleton and Company |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/aflashsummersto00clifgoog|quote=w k  clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Mere Stories |year=1896 |publisher=A. and C. Black |location=London |url= http://www.geocities.com/orwellus/meretitle.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022074103/http://geocities.com/orwellus/meretitle.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 October 2009}}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=The Dominant Note and Other Stories |year=1897 | publisher=Dodd, Meade and Company |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1cWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP7}}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=A Long Duel: A Serious Comedy |year=1902 |publisher=John Lane |location=London and New York |url=https://archive.org/details/alongduelaserio00clifgoog|quote=lucy clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Woodside Farm |year=1902 |publisher=Duckworth and Company |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/woodsidefarm00clifgoog|quote=w k  clifford. }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=The Getting Well of Dorothy |year=1904 |publisher=Methuen and Company |location=London }}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Plays |year=1910 |publisher=Mitchell Kennerley |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/playshamiltonss01clifgoog |quote=lucy clifford. }}
*{{Cite book | author = Clifford, Lucy | title = A Woman Alone | year = 1915 | publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons | location = New York | url = http://www.geocities.com/orwellus/watitle.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022105248/http://geocities.com/orwellus/watitle.htm | url-status = dead |archive-date=22 October 2009}}
*{{Cite book |author=Clifford, Lucy |title=Miss Fingal |year=1919 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |url= https://archive.org/details/missfingal00clifiala|quote=w k  clifford. }}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

*Marysa Demoor (1999) "Self-Fashioning at the Turn of the Century: the discursive life of Lucy Clifford (1846–1929)", ''Journal of Victorian Culture'', Volume 4, Issue 2, Spring 1999, pp. 276–291, {{doi|10.1080/13555509909505993}}
*Marysa Demoor (2001), "'Not with a bang but a whimper': Lucy Clifford's Correspondence, 1919–1929", ''The Cambridge Quarterly'', Volume 30, Issue 3, 1 September 2001, pp. 233–256, {{doi|10.1093/camqtly/30.3.233}}
*Marysa Demoor and Monty Chisholm, (1999) "Bravest of women and finest of friends: Henry James's letters to Lucy Clifford". English Literary Studies, Scholarly Monograph Series, Victoria University Press; 1999, p. 120

==External links==
*[http://www.williamandlucyclifford.com/ William and Lucy Clifford]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061021222524/http://www.lutterworth.com/lp/titles/suchsilv.htm Biography of Lucy Clifford] by Monty Chisholm
*A guide to the [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.clifford Mrs. W. K. Clifford Papers] at the [http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/index.html Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]
*{{Gutenberg author |id=34477}}
*{{Internet Archive author |name=Lucy Clifford |sopt=t}}
*{{Librivox author |id=1992}}
*{{LCAuth|n50028656|Mrs. W. K. Clifford |34 |ue}}
*Mrs W.K. Clifford on [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/734/ Great War Theatre website]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifford, Lucy}}
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery]]
[[Category:Victorian women writers]]