Mary Macgregor, along with H. E. Marshall, was one of the principle authors of juvenile history, who wrote for E. C & T. C. Jack during the early years of the twentieth century. Like Marshall, she collaborated on several children's series of books, including Told to the Children and Children's Heroes. Like Marshall, she also write storybook histories for middle school children.
While Marshall specialized in histories of the british Isles however, Magregor focused on Ancient Civilizations, including Greece and Rome. Her books were widely read classics, republished for many years in both the British Empire, and the United States, most recently in the the 1960's. Both sets of history books were beautifully illustrated with dozens of original color scenes from history.
Katherine Hillard was a member of a prominent British Unitarian and Brooklyn family. Her cousin, Mr. Seth Low, was President of Colombia University (1890 1901) and served as Mayor of Brooklyn (1882-1885) and New York City (1901-1903).
She left England when she was seven years old (1846), spending many years in Italy and then moving to New York. She returned to London in 1884.
Little is known about her. At the time she was working on her Dante Map (December 1891), she was residing in London, at 37 Collingham Place.
She lived in Italy, where she received the assistance of Count Ugo Balzani and the "accoglienza onesta e lieta" of Signor Bonghi.
She was in contact with eminent contemporary dantisti such as Edward Moore (founder and President of the Oxford Dante Society, Taylorian lecturer ), Philipp Wicksteed (lecturer, scholar and translator), Mr Bryce (member of the Oxford Dante Society) Sir Frederick Pollock (translator), Mr. J. S. Black (Edinburgh).
She corresponded with the Dante Society of America
Bromby, Mary (Hensman) 2 A.L.s. to [ ]; 1892-1894., 1892-1894.)
Mary Acworth Orr was, astronomer and literary scholar, was born on 1 January 1867 at Plymouth Hoe, the fifth child and third daughter of Andrew Orr (d. 1870), an officer in the Royal Artillery, and his wife, Lucy Acworth. Her father died when she was only three years old and the family went to live with their maternal grandfather, a priest in the Church of England, first at Wimborne and then at South Stoke near Bath.
Mary and her youngest sister, Lucy, the close companion of her childhood, were educated entirely at home. When Mary was twenty the two sisters travelled abroad to study languages and the arts. They spent the years 1888–90 in Florence where they began studying the work of Dante and where Mary, who from an early age had an interest in astronomy, became fascinated by the astronomical references in Dante's poetry.
Following this, their mother and all four daughters lived for five years in Australia, near Sydney in New South Wales, where Mary got to know the astronomer John Tebbutt at his observatory at Windsor. Finding that there existed no simple star charts of the southern sky she produced An Easy Guide to the Southern Stars (1897) with a foreword by Tebbutt.
The Orr family returned to England in 1895. Mary, already since 1891 a member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, joined the British Astronomical Association in London and strove to become a serious amateur observer. From 1900 onwards at her home in Frimley, Surrey, she used a 3 in. refractor to make observations of variable stars; she appeared in Stroobant's list of the world's astronomers compiled for the year 1902.
In 1906 plans were afoot for Miss Orr to work with E. T. Whitaker, whose wife was a cousin of hers, at Dunsink observatory, Dublin, presumably on a voluntary basis. These came to nothing with her marriage to John Evershed (1864–1956), whom she had first met in 1896 on the British Astronomical Association's clouded-out eclipse expedition to Norway. She moved with him to India on his appointment as assistant director of the Kodaikanal observatory.
The Eversheds spent the years 1906–23 in Kodaikanal, Evershed being promoted to director of the observatory in 1911. The observatory was entirely devoted to solar work in which Mrs Evershed, though not a formal member of staff, took a keen interest. She published in 1913 an important paper on active solar prominences, illustrated with a number of fine spectroheliograms. She also acted as her husband's assistant on an expedition to observe the total solar eclipse of 1922 in Australia, and on his expeditions to Kashmir and to New Zealand to test astronomical observing sites.
Marie Louise Egerton Castle was the daughter of Agnes Mary Frances Sweetman and Egerton Castle. They married in 1883 and co-authored many novels with her husband.
Her mother also wrote plays for children, as well as stories for magazines such as Temple Bar, Cornhill Magazine, and Macmillan. Egerton Castle M.A., F.S.A. (12 March 1858 – 16 September 1920) was an author, antiquarian, and swordsman, and an early practitioner of reconstructed historical fencing, frequently in collaboration with his colleague Captain Alfred Hutton. He was born in London into a wealthy family; his maternal grandfather was the publishing magnate and philanthropist Egerton Smith.
Her father, Rev. Septimus Cotes, was the Rector of Newington in Oxfordshore. She had a brother, Everard Charles Cotes who was an entomologist who worked at the Indian Museum in Calcutta. He later became a journalist after marrying the famous Canadian journalist, novelist and playwright Sara Jeannette Duncan. She died unmarried in Oxford on December 18, 1914. Effects £ 135 16s 1d.
Born 17 December 1849 and baptised at Woolwich, 6 February 1850. In 1921 Census her sister Edith recorded her occupation as "authoress".
She died unmarried on 11 December 1928; will proved 23 January 1929 (estate £3,949).
Marian Andrews was born at 1 Pelham Place, Brompton, London, on 24 February 1839, the eldest child in the family of four daughters and four sons of the political reformer Thomas Hare (1806–1891) and his wife Mary, née Samson (d. 1855). Marian Hare’s early homes were in Pelham Place, Brompton, and Chestnut Cottage at Ham in Surrey, before the family settled at Gosbury Hill, Hook, Surrey. Her father was a barrister, best known for his support for proportional representation and his close friendship with John Stuart Mill.
Like her sisters, Marian Hare was educated at home.
Born in Casale Monferrato (Alessandria)on the 2nd of June 1880, she obtained the “licenza d’onore” diploma at her local high school. She matriculated at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy on the 26th of October 1899, she obtained her degree in Literature on the 15th of July 1903 with 109 points out of 110, presenting a dissertation in Latin Literature. She passed the exam of Magisterium in Letters on the 19th of December the same year, presenting an essay on Italian Literature and resulting in her being approved with 50 points out of 50 and honours «with the most special aptitude for literary teaching in High schools ». She also obtained a philosophy degree on the 14th of December 1904 with 110 points out of 110, presenting a dissertation on Moral Philosophy. She was a writer and teacher; appointed in 1920 as the Head of the Institute in the “R. Scuole Normali Femminili”. She met Mario Pratesi in Belluno where she taught Italian (1904-1906). She collaborated on various journals including la Rassegna nazionale (the national Exhibition), la Nuova Antologia (the New Anthology) and Convivum (feast). Amongst the writings we find Giacomo Leopardi and Maurice de Guerin (Turin: Clausen, 1904)
Born in Perugia in 1841, she began writing poetry in her adolescence. Her aspirations were above all religious, evidenced by her careful readings of sacred texts, guided by her mother Teresa Tarulli di Matelica. Between the ages of 9 and 12 she studied Dante’s Divine Comedy and Petrarch’s Canzoniere in depth, as well as works by Horatio and Virgil. She later went on to produce a translation of the Aeneid. She studied Greek as well as Platonic and Christian philosophy. Thanks to her father, she was also a positive sciences enthusiast, as well as a lover of botany, collecting a significant herbarium.
In 1854, for political reasons, her family was forced to leave Perugia and move to Recanati, where they remained until 1868. Back in Umbria, Maria Alinda married Pietro Brunamonti and had 3 children, of which only Beatrice made it to adulthood.
Throughout her life, she wrote and published a series of poems of elegiac, patriotic and naturalistic quality; the most famous of which are “Canti” published in 1856, “Canti Nazionali” published in 1860 and “Versi Campestri” published in 1876. She made friends with other writers of her era, including Terenzio Mamiani, Niccolò Tommaseo, Francesco De Sanctis, Giacomo Zanella, and Scipione Maffei. She also frequented Casa Leopardi, connecting with Teresa Teja in Leopardi in particular.
Her civic commitment allowed her to be the only woman to vote for the annexation of Le Marche and Umbria to the Kingdom of Savoia. It also allowed her to participate in the greeting given to Perugian women for the passage of Queen Margherita in Perugia, on the 11th of November 1878. She also composed a funeral dirge, on the 6th of June 1881, for the commemoration of King Vittorio Emanuele II’s death. She died at the age of 62 in the city where she was born, on the 3rd of February 1903.
Alba Cinzia Caldi Scalcini, was a poet, children's book author and teacher of literature. At the turn of the century, she helped women to access further and higher education, at a time when women were expected to stay home.
She became President of a suffragette society that gave lectures, organised workshops and gave women access to books. In 1911, she was one of 150 women who came together, each with a book. This was the beginning of a library that would grow to a 43,000 collection covering art, history, philosophy, science, theatre and music. It was a library that opened new worlds and new opportunities for those women.
She translated ancient and modern classics, wrote poetry and prose. Her children’s books broached difficult subjects like death with a light touch and an easy language. Her book, La Prateria Degli Asfodeli, written in 1943, towards the end of the war, was said to ‘jog the sad memories of dictatorship, but offer dreams of the future for those who survived.’
Alba Cinzia demonstrated bravery in campaigning for education and reminds us of the value of education in empowering others. It is something I often think about when I step into the classroom.
In 1905 she married Vincenzo Cannaviello, who carried out an intense activity as a lecturer and publicist, passionately devoting herself to the study of the history and the protagonists of the Risorgimento in Irpinia. She published meticulous and well-documented studies on the Risorgimento uprisings and on the figures of Irpinian patriots Lorenzo De Concilij, Gregorio Mancini, Michele Morelli, and Giuseppe Silvati.
She was politically active for some years, although in the years between the two world wars her political attitude became more neutral and detached, and her refusal to adhere to the fascist regime forced her into isolation from public activity.
