M. E. Francis was the pen name of Mary Elizabeth Blundell (née Sweetman; 1859 – 9 March 1930) who was a prolific Irish novelist. She was described as the best known woman novelist of the day.
Biography
Mary Elizabeth Sweetman was born at
Killiney
Killiney () is an affluent coastal suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. It lies south of Dalkey, east and northeast of Ballybrack and Sallynoggin and north of Shankill, in the local government area of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown within ...
Park,
County Dublin
County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...
to Michael James Sweetman (1829-1864), of Lamberton Park,
Queen's County,
JP,
High Sheriff of Queen's County
The High Sheriff of Queen's County was the British Crown's judicial representative in Queen's County, Ireland (now County Laois), Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the off ...
in 1852, and (Mary) Margaret, only child and heir of Michael Powell, of
Fitzwilliam Square
Fitzwilliam Square () is a Georgian garden square in the south of central Dublin, Ireland. It was the last of the five Georgian squares in Dublin to be built, and is the smallest.
The middle of the square is composed of a private park, which f ...
, Dublin. She had two brothers and three sisters. The Sweetman family were landed gentry of Longtown,
County Kildare
County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...
, and per family tradition were "long settled in Dublin" and "previously resident near Callan and Newtown, County Kilkenny", tracing their line back to the mid-1500s. After her father's death, when she was a small child, the remaining family moved to
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
in 1873 and she spent her summers in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
Her sisters,
Agnes Sweetman and
Elinor Sweetman were also writers.
She married Colonel Francis Nicholas Blundell (1853-1884) on 18 November 1879, and moved to
Little Crosby
Little Crosby is a small village in the Sefton district of Merseyside, England. Despite being within 8 miles of Liverpool it has retained its rural character by, for example, opting not to have street lights. Until 1974 it was in Lancashire.
T ...
, where his family had been notable Catholics since the 16th century.
They had one son, the politician
Francis Blundell, and two daughters, Margaret Elizabeth Clementina Mary and Agnes Mary Frances Blundell, MBE, both also writers. Her husband died after only five years of marriage. Blundell had written her first story when she was eight (‘''True Joy''’) and had a publication in the ''
Irish Monthly'' the day of her wedding. She took up writing professionally after her husband's death. In later life she wrote in collaboration with her daughters.
She later retired to
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
. According to ''Edwardian Fiction: An Oxford Companion'' (1997), "The Ireland of her youth, the Lancashire of her married life, and the Dorset of her retirement provided backgrounds for many of her volumes of fiction."
Bibliography
Further reading
* A Round Table of the Representative Irish and English Catholic Novelists: At which is Served a Feast of Excellent Stories; with Portraits, Biographical Sketches, and Bibliography, Authors incl Mary E. Sweetman Blundell ("Mrs. Francis Blundell"), Publisher Benziger Brothers, 1897
* A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language, T.J. Carty, Routledge, 1 Dec 2015, 860 pages
*
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, M.E.
1859 births
1930 deaths
Irish women novelists
People from Crosby, Merseyside
People from Killiney