Julia Constance Fletcher (1853–1938) was an author and playwright who professionally went by the pseudonym of George Fleming. She was born in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in 1853, the daughter of James Cooley Fletcher (1823-1901) and granddaughter of the banker

Calvin Fletcher Calvin Fletcher (February 4, 1798 – May 26, 1866) was an American attorney who became a prominent banker, farmer and state senator in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1821 Fletcher moved from Vermont via Ohio to the new settlement of Indianapolis, wh ...

. Her mother was Henriette Malan, the daughter of a Swiss clergyman. She went to

Abbot Academy Abbot Academy (also known as Abbot Female Seminary and AA) was an University-preparatory school, independent boarding preparatory school for women boarding and day care for students in grades 9–12 from 1828 to 1973. Located in Andover, Massac ...

, in Andover, Massachusetts, and was in the class of 1867. After her parents' divorce, Julia went to live with her mother in Venice. Henriette had remarried, her second husband being a painter, Eugene Benson. Julia also spent some time in London. One of the sponsors of her early novels was Alfred Sassoon, a junior member of the wealthy

Sassoon family The Sassoon family were a wealthy Baghdadi Jews, Baghdadi Jews, Jewish family dynasty, associated with finance, banking, capital markets, the exploration of oil and gas, Judaism, British Conservative Party, Conservative politics, opium trade wit ...

and the father of

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...

. Alfred's infatuation with Julia was the catalyst for his desertion of his wife,

Theresa Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; ) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Classical Greek, Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or rea ...

. Julia's other supporters included her grandfather's friend

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and she also knew

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

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 ...

and

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, Art critic, art and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of t ...

. Two of her books, ''Kismet'' and ''Mirage'', were published as "no name novels" by

Roberts Brothers Messrs. Roberts Brothers (1857–1898) were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s. Amer ...

in Boston. Both books deal with Americans' adventures while traveling abroad, along the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

and in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, respectively. ''Mirage'' has been described by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

scholar S. I. Salamensky, as a '' roman-á-clef'' fiction in which "a dangerously appealing, if slightly bi- or asexual, figure based on Wilde romantically pursues" a woman who is thought to represent Fletcher. In 1900 she wrote a translation/adaptation of

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

's play ''Les Romanesques'', which she titled ''The Fantasticks''. The 1960 musical of the same name, also based on ''Les Romanesques'', borrows heavily from Fletcher's version.

Selected works

* ''A Nile Novel, or Kismet'' (1876) * ''Mirage'' (1878) * ''The Head of Medusa'' (1880) * ''Vestigia'' (1884) * ''Andromeda: A Novel'' (1885) * ''The truth about Clement Ker ... Told by his second cousin, Geoffrey Ker, of London'' (1889) * ''For Plain Women Only'' (1895) * ''Little Stories About Women'' (1897)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Julia Constance 1853 births 19th-century Brazilian women writers Immigrants to the United Kingdom 1938 deaths Pseudonymous women writers 19th-century Brazilian writers Abbot Academy alumni 19th-century pseudonymous writers