Anne "Annie" Elizabeth Nicholson Ireland pseud. Mrs Alexander Ireland (1842 – 4 October 1893) was an English writer and biographer.

Life

She was born in Penrith, Cumberland, to

John Nicholson (1809–1886) John Nicholson (1809–1886) was an English landowner and orientalist, known for his command of Hebrew and Arabic. Life He was the son of the Rev. Mark Nicholson of Barbados, the eldest in a family of six and born there; his mother was Lucy Reyno ...

and his wife, Annie Elizabeth Nicholson, née Waring. Her elder brother,

Henry Alleyne Nicholson Henry Alleyne Nicholson FRS FRSE FGS FLS (11 September 1844 – 19 January 1899) was a British palaeontologist and zoologist. Life The son of John Nicholson (1809–1886), a biblical scholar, and his wife Annie Elizabeth Waring, he was born at ...

became the Regius Professor of Natural History at

Aberdeen University The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Al ...

Her most renowned work is her biography ''Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle'' (1891). She is also known for publishing

Jane Carlyle Jane Baillie Carlyle (' Welsh; 14 July 1801 – 21 April 1866) was a Scottish writer and the wife of Thomas Carlyle. She did not publish any work in her lifetime, but she was widely seen as an extraordinary letter writer. Virginia Woolf ca ...

's correspondence with her intimate friend

Geraldine Jewsbury Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (22 August 1812 – 23 September 1880) was an English novelist, book reviewer and literary figure in London, best known for popular novels such as ''Zoe: the History of Two Lives'' and reviews for the literary periodic ...

. These were published under the name ''Selections from the Letters of Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury to Jane Welsh Carlyle'' (1892) by the London publisher Longmans and Co., edited by Ireland herself and prefaced by Jewsbury. Furthermore, Ireland published her recollections of J. A. Froude (which were published after her death in the ''Contemporary Review''). Ireland was a member of the

Browning Society Browning societies were groups who met to discuss the works of Robert Browning. Emerging from various reading groups, the societies indicated the poet's fame, and unusually were forming in his lifetime.Murray, H. (2002) ''Come, bright improvemen ...

(dedicated to Victorian poet

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

), in which she gave a number of lectures, such as "A Toccata of Galuppi's" at the 66th meeting (26 April 1889) and "Some Remarks on Browning's Treatment of Parenthood" at the 73rd meeting (28 March 1890). Ireland died on 4 October 1893 at Fallowfield, Manchester.

Family

Ireland was the second wife of Alexander Ireland. They had two notable sons.

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian-American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles i ...

was a composer who taught at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

. Her other son,

Alleyne Ireland Walter Alleyne Ireland (19 January 1871, Manchester – 23 December 1951) was a British traveller and author on the tropical colonies of the British empire. Life His mother was the biographer Annie Elizabeth Nicholson Ireland and his father was ...

, wrote ''Tropical Colonization'' (1889), ''The Province of Burma'' (1907), ''Democracy and the Human Equation'' (1921), and ''The New Korea'' (1926).

Works include

* Ireland, Annie E. (1888)
"George Eliot and Jane Welsh Carlyle,"
''The Gentleman's Magazine,'' Vol. CCLXIV, pp. 229–238. * Ireland, Annie E. (1891)
''Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle''
New York: C.L. Webster & Co.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ireland, Anne Elizabeth 1842 births 1893 deaths English biographers Date of birth unknown 19th-century English women writers British women biographers