Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler (9 April 1860 – 22 June 1929) was an English author of popular romances, and a poet and children's writer. She was a keen

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Family and status

The elder daughter of

Henry Hartley Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton Henry Hartley Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton, (16 May 183025 February 1911) was a British solicitor and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1908 when he was raised to the peerage. A member of the Wesleyan Me ...

, a Wesleyan MP, and his wife Ellen Thorneycroft, Ellen was born at Chapel Ash,

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, on 9 April 1860. Her younger sister, Edith Henrietta Fowler (16 February 1865 – 18 November 1944), also wrote novels and a biography of her father.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds, ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'' (Batsford: London), 1990, p. 390. On 16 April 1903, Ellen married Alfred Felkin, a senior teacher at the

Royal Naval School The Royal Naval School was an English school that was established in Camberwell, London, in 1833 and then formally constituted by the ( 3 & 4 Vict. c. lxxxvi). It was a charitable institution, established as a boarding school for the sons ...

Mottingham Mottingham is a district of south-east London, England, which straddles the border of the London Borough of Bromley, the London Borough of Lewisham and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is located southwest of Eltham, . It was historically wi ...

near

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three ...

. She died on 22 June 1929 in Westbourne, Dorset.Literary Heritage West Midland
Retrieved 7 July 2018.
/ref> Fowler became a member of the Writers' Club and the Women's Athenaeum Club. She was appointed a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

Verse and romances

Fowler's earliest volumes were ''Verses Grave and Gay'' (1891) and ''Verses Wise and Otherwise'' (1895), which were followed by a volume of short stories. Further poetry came in ''Love's Argument and Other Poems'' (1905). Of her romances, a present-day commentator has noted, "Fowler unusually combined Methodism with high society..., which proved popular despite leaving the critics cold."Jarndyce Booksellers' catalogue ''Women Writers 1795–1927 Part I: A–F'' (London, Summer 2017). Fame came first with ''Concerning Isabel Carnaby'' (1898), then ''A Double Thread'' (1899), ''The Farringdons'' (1900), ''Fuel of Fire'' (1902), ''Place and Power'' (1903), ''Kate of Kate Hall'' (1904), ''In Subjection'' (1906), ''Miss Fallowfield's Fortune'' (1908), ''The Wisdom of Folly'' (1910), ''Her Ladyship's Conscience'' (1913), ''Ten Degrees Backward'' (1915), ''Beauty and Bands'' (1920) ''The Lower Pool'' (1923) and ''Signs and Wonders'' (1926).

Edith Henrietta Fowler

Fowler's sister, Edith Henrietta Fowler, wrote two successful novels for children: ''The Young Pretenders'' (1895) and ''The Professor's Children'' (1897), and also ''The Man with Transparent Legs – Twenty six ideal stories for girls'' (1899). The first of these was republished in London by Persephone Books in 2007, in view of its "sophistication, humour and ironies" of interest to both children and adults."Aunt Eleanor put on a tea-gown, and threw herself down on the sofa. 'I feel so wretchedly ill!' she exclaimed petulantly. 'These hot days give me such a headache!' 'Do you fink you'll get better or die?' asked Babs with interest. 'She is the most unfeeling child I ever saw!' thought her aunt – but aloud she said snappishly: 'Of course I shall get better!' 'I'm so glad!'
''The Young Pretenders'' Retrieved 8 October 2018.
/ref>

References

External links

* * *

shropshire-cc.gov.uk; accessed 5 April 2016. *http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/s/s2752.htm#A64010, accessed 5 July 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft 1860 births 1929 deaths Daughters of viscounts English women novelists 19th-century English writers English children's writers Writers from Wolverhampton 20th-century English women writers 19th-century English women