Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Eliza Kirkham Mathews
-
Standard Name: Mathews, Eliza Kirkham
Birth Name: Eliza Kirkham Strong
Married Name: Eliza Kirkham Mathews
Married Name: Mrs C. Mathews
EKM
published less than has been supposed. Only her children's books, two volumes of poems, and two novels (melodramatic but heartfelt, presenting actual, financial, as well as romance-type struggles) pose no problems of attribution. She began but left unfinished an adaptation for the stage, which may or may not have been her only work in this genre. Two novels sometimes ascribed to her, with a similar but different name, cannot be hers. Another series of novels commonly attributed to her, published by Hookham
, has now been shown to be by Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
.
They were outraged, and at once sought legal advice from Edmund Burke
(who had experienced image problems of a not dissimilar kind).
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Michael Joseph, 1971.
83-4
Brideoake, Fiona. “Keep Yourself in Your Own Persons, Where You Are: The Ladies of Llangollen and Queer Self-Fashioning”. 42nd ASECS Annual Meeting, 18 Mar. 2011.
This episode was remarkable partly because such hostility was unusual. But not...
Friends, Associates
Marguerite Gardiner Countess of Blessington
Charles Mathews
, later a well-known actor, accompanied them abroad. His wife
and son
(not his first wife, the writer Eliza Kirkham Mathews
) were also friends of Lady Blessington.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.
In France the travelling party...
Literary responses
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
The Critical Review found the narrative artless and likeable, and the effect of harrowing up the soul successful, despite a trite story and conventional characters. For the young writer's future it advised that her language...
The lost and unidentified novel published by Hookham
was the first of a series by LMH
that appeared without her name. Even Hookham was not let into the secret of her identity until 1792, and...
Textual Production
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
Thomas Hookham
issued Constance: A Novel as a young lady's first literary attempt. Though usually ascribed to the only thirteen-year-old Eliza Kirkham Strong (later Mathews)
, it is now known to be by...
Textual Production
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
The publisher Thomas Hookham
thus dated The Pharos. A Collection of Periodical Essays, issued by LMH
as by the Author of Constance (often misascribed to the future Eliza Kirkham Mathews
).
Thomas Hookham
published an epistolary novel, Argus; the House-Dog at Eadlip. Memoirs in a Family Correspondence, as by the Author of Constance and The Pharos—who till recently has been wrongly identified as the...
Textual Production
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
Thomas Hookham
issued LMH
's Arnold Zulig, a Swiss Story, as by the Author of Constance and of other works. Again this has been misinterpreted to mean that the author was Eliza Kirkham Strong (later Mathews)
Textual Production
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
Thomas Hookham
issued Memoirs of a Scots Heiress. Addressed to the Right Honourable Lady Catherine xxx, a novel by LMH
(not Eliza Kirkham Strong, later Mathews
) as by the Author of Constance, etc...
Textual Production
Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins
The Count de Hoensdern; a German Tale was in print—last of the novels now re-ascribed from Eliza Kirkham Strong (later Mathews)
to LMH
, and issued as by the Author of Constance etc.
