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Born, 1831. Began to contribute to periodicals, 1853. Hon.
See. and Vice-Pres. Of Egypt Exploration Fund. Hon. L. H. D.
Degree, Columbia Coll., New York, 1887. Lectured in United
States, 1889-90. Died, 15 April 1892. Works: "My Brother's Wife,"
1855; "A Summary of English History," 1856; "The Ladder of life"
1857; "The Young Marquis" [1857]; "Hand and Glove," 1858; "The
History of France," 1858; Letterpress to "The Photographic
Historical Portrait Gallery," 1860; ",,Sights and Stories,"
1862; "The Story of Cervantes," 1863 [1862]; "Barbara's History,"
1864 [1863]; "Ballads," 1865; Miss Carew, 1865; "Half a Million of
Money, 1865; Poems in "Home Thoughts and Home Scenes, 1865; "Debenham's
Vow," 1870; "Untrodden Peaks" 1873; "In the Days of my Youth, 1873;
"Monsieur Maurice," 1873; "A Thousand Miles up the Nile," 1877
[1876]; "A Poetry-Book of Elder Poets," 1879; "A Poetry-Book of
Modern Poets," 1879; "Lord Brackenbury," 1880; "Pharaohs, Fellahs
and Explorers," 1891.--She translated: Loviot's "A Lady's
Captivity among the Chinese Pirates," [1858]; Maspero's "Egyptian
Archæology," 1897.--SHARP, R.
FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English
Authors, p. 91.
Summer or winter, in rain or sun or snow,
Miss Edwards does her half-mile before and
half-mile after breakfast, previous to beginning
work, touching an index dial at the
bottom of the path to make sure of her
record. When tired at her desk she also
takes a few turns. After luncheon, in the
afternoon, a carriage drive of a couple of
hours and an incidental walk give further
recreation, and at dinner-time she repeats
the morning walk. Otherwise than this she
works all the time, forenoon, afternoon, and
evening, giving to the cause of the Egyptian
Exploration Fund, of which she is the
founder and one of the honorary secretaries,
in the writing of letters and articles, time
and work worth some hundreds of pounds
a year. In starting a novel, which she never
expects to complete under two years, Miss
Edwards maps out an elaborate plot, chapter
by chapter, most conscientiously. Then
she begins to write, and writes something
entirely different. A new plot is evolved
out of the dibris of the old in a few brief
memoranda, and this serves. She never
describes scenery nor buildings which she has
not seen and studied, though her interiors
are furnished by the imagination to suit the
situation. Thus a special visit to Cheshire
laid the ground for "Lord Brackenbury,"
and some of the illustrations for it were
redrawn from her own sketches. . . . Miss
Edwards, with her strong, keen, fine face, is
a fitting type for the woman scholar, a
scholar made by hard study, but a writer
born, since she wrote her first novel "before
she could write," when four years old, printing
the letters and making pictures; printed
a long poem at eleven; and at twelve wrote
an elaborate historical novel, which was
published serially in a London penny
weekly.--BOWKER,
RICHARD
ROGERS, 1888,
London as a Literary Centre,
Harper's Magazine, vol. 77,
pp. 23, 24.
As a woman she is simple and earnest in
her manner; free from anything like affectation,
cordial and kind, and entertaining to
the point of fascination. All this she carries
into her lectures, and a fresh charm is
given by her voice, which is music itself.
It is not hard, nor is it pitched high, but it
is beautifully clear, and has a carrying
quality, which makes it possible for every
one in her audience to hear distinctly any
word she utters. She speaks with deliberation,
but without the suggestion of slowness. . . .
In personal appearance Miss Edwards is a tall,
fine-looking woman, with silvery hair brushed
straight back from her forehead, kindly gray
eyes, a fresh complexion, and a clear-cut,
very expressive mouth. She has a most genial,
winning, and cordial manner, and is a charming
conversationalist.--WHITE,
SALLIE JOY, 1890,
Amelia B. Edwards,
New England Magazine,
N.S., vol. 2, pp. 196, 198.
With regard to "my manners and customs"
and the course of my daily life, there
is little or nothing to tell, I am essentially a
worker, and a hard worker, and this I have
been since my early girlhood. When I am
asked what are my working hours, I reply:--"All
the time when I am not either sitting
at meals, taking exercise, or sleeping;"
and this is literally true. I live with the
pen in my hand, not only from morning till
night, but sometimes from night till morning.
I have, in fact, been a night bird ever
since I came out of the school-room, when I
habitually sat up reading till long past
midnight. Later on, when I adopted literature
as a profession, I still found that "To steal
a few hours from the night" was to ensure
the quietest time, and the pleasantest, for
pen and brain work; and, for at least the
last twenty-five years, I have rarely put out
my lamp before two or three in the morning.
Occasionally, when work presses and a
manuscript has to be despatched by the
earliest morning mail, I remain at my desk
the whole night through; and I can with
certainty say that the last chapter of every
book I have ever written has been finished
at early morning. In summer-time, it is
certain1y delightful to draw up the blinds
and complete in sunlight a task begun when
the lamps were lighted in the
evening.--EDWARDS,
AMELIA B., 1891,
My Home Life,
The Arena, vol. 4, p. 309.
So long as she lived Miss Edwards
devoted herself to the work of the Egypt
Exploration Fund, abandoning all her other
literary interests. As it was her contagious
enthusiasm that originally brought the
members together, so it was her genius for
organization that smoothed over difficulties
and insured success. With her own hand
she wrote innumerable letters, acknowledging
receipt of subscriptions, and labelled
the objects presented to museums. During
this period she regularly contributed articles
on Egyptological subjects to the "Times"
and the "Academy," as well as to other
journals at home and
abroad.--COTTON, J. S.,
1901, Dictionary of National Biography,
Supplement, vol. II, p. 177.
"A Thousand Miles up the Nile" is far
from being a mere book of travel, though it
is enlivened with the incidental narratives
and picturesque descriptions customary in
such a volume. . . . The style of the whole
book is marked by precision and sustained
vigour.... All the attractive and popular
qualities which I have enumerated are
placed by the author at the service of a
strong and ardent passion for Egyptian
archmology. . . . It is this enthusiasm for
old Egypt, running, powerful and deep,
throughout the volume, as an undercurrent
to its many other interests, that gives its
real charm to the
work.--SYMONDS,
JOHN
ADDINGTON, 1877, A
Thousand Miles up the Nile, The Academy,
vol. 11, p. 65.
The name of Amelia B. Edwards is one
that is familiar as an admirable writer of
fiction; it also represents a lady with whom
I can boast of an acquaintance, though
some years have passed since we met. I
have derived so much pleasure from that
lady's books that I should be ungrateful if I
did not place the writer prominently among
the "people I have known." . . . I venture
to recommend Miss Edwards' novel
called "Barbara's History" to any one who
doubts the authoress's right to be placed
very high in the ranks of novelists. A reading
of that book will dispel any such
doubts.--FRITH, W. P.,
1888, My Autobiography and Reminiscences,
vol. II, p. 305.
On Feb. 13 Mr. Lowell added to his formal
signature these, words: "Dear Dr.
'Winslow: I have great pleasure in signing
the above document." What he signed
reads: "The proposed visit of Mim Amelia
B. Edwards to the United States to see our
Country and to lecture upon subjects in
which she is an acknowledged authority, if
carried into effect, will be an event of special
interest to the intelligent and cultivated
people of our land. She may be assured of a
hearty welcome, and her lectures cannot
fail to prove of rare profit and pleasure to
her audiences." . . . I am sure that Miss
Edwards will now yield to the desire of her
heart to see a people that she loves so well as
the Americans. I imagine she will come
when next the maples are all aglow, which
will recall to her "the after-glow on the
Nile," and so be ready to begin to lecture on
Egypt in November. Already some of our
choicest rostrums, in institutes and
universities have been placed at her disposal.
I note that the English and Scotch press
refer, in most appreciative terms, to her
lectures in great cities and university
centres, before crowded and enthusiastic
audiences. . . . We shall be glad, too, to
hear Miss Edwards on fiction, music and
art (apart from Egypt), in which she is a
foremost critic of the
day.--WINSLOW,
WILLIAM C.,
1889, Miss Edwards' Visit to
America, The Critic,
vol. 11, p. 107.
No other novel ["Barbara's History"]
has ever been to me quite what this was.
"Charles Auchester" and a sweet English
story, "St. Olave's," came the nearest to
sharing my regard with it, but, much as I
liked these books, they were not the first in
my regard. That place of honor was given
to "Barbara's History." . . . It is in her
works of travels that Miss Edwards is at her
best. She. brings such a spirit of enthusiastic
enjoyment to this work that she fascinates
her readers and holds them spellbound
by the beauty of her description and the
rich results of her research. Many of her
books are illustrated by herself, and a story
told of her when she was a girl of fourteen is
of decided interest., as showing the
many-sidedness of her genius. At this time she
sent a short story to The Omnibus,
a periodical edited by the celebrated caricaturist, the
late George Cruikshank. On the back of
her manuscript she had drawn caricatures
of her principal characters, which showed
a cleverness that so delighted the great
humorist that he called at once to see his
unknown contributor. Fancy his surprise
on being presented to a child. Recovering
from his astonishment be offered to train
her in his special work, but she declined his
offer. Later on, for her own satisfaction,
and as a recreation from her literary work,
she studied art under the best masters. The
advantage of this training she has reaped in
being able to make her own illustrations for
her books.--WHITE,
SALLIE
JOY, 1890,
Amelia, B. Edwards,
New England Magazine,
N. S., vol. 2, pp. 194, 196.
I shall not attempt to write a biography
of the eminent English woman who has just
passed away, but must limit myself to an
endeavour to record her services to learning.
Therefore I pass by the early musical
training of Miss Edwards, her skill as a
landscape artist, and the long series of novels
which gave her a name before Egyptology
made her famous. I begin with the year
1883, when at the age of fifty-two she
began her life's work and joined Sir Erasmus
Wilson in founding the Egypt Exploration
Fund. This great enterprise, with which
her name is by desert indissolubly linked,
was the outcome of Mariette's so-called
"archæological will." It took shape after
a visit to Egypt described in "A Thousand
Miles up the Nile," which excited in a
highly-imaginative mind an undying
interest in the monuments. . . . To Miss
Edwards is due the success of the Fund. On
her fell the duty of maintaining the
subscriptions to the Fund in England, and of
corresponding with the explorers and
editing the Memoirs--a labour on which she
spared no pains, and made many lasting
friends and not a single enemy. This was
not due to diplomacy, but to a keen
sympathy with the workers, and a full
appreciation of their
hardships.--POOLE,
REGINALD
STUART, 1892,
Amelia B. Edwards,
The Academy, vol.
41, pp. 397, 398.
Her work in the field of fiction
has stood the test of time, her merits as an
Egyptologist are now universally acknowledged--it
is pleasant to know that the cordial recognition
of the "Athenæum" a few weeks ago
was one of the last things read to her. . . .
Although English literature was from childhood
to middle life her absorbing study and
pursuit, music in early years had taken
such hold of her that at one time it seemed
as if Amelia B. Edwards would rather distinguish
herself in that field than authorship. . . .
For drawing also she possessed
marked talent, though I am unaware that
she ever received a drawing lesson in her
life. Indeed, excepting in the matter of
music, few distinguished persons have been
less indebted to teachers; she always said
that she could teach herself anything better
than others could teach her, and as an
Egyptologist she was entirely self-taught.
A happy chance led, her into the field
of her latest and most briltant successes. It
was quite by accident that she visited
Egypt soine years since, the results of her
journey being now well before the world.
No need here to dwell on her exertions as
honorary secretary of the Egypt Exploration
Fund, or her numerous contributions
to Egyptian archæology. As was lately
Pointed out in the columns of the "Athenæum,"
she is the first lady who has attained
distinction as an
Egyptologist.--BETHAM-EDWARDS,
M., 1892, Miss A. B. Edwards,
The Athenæum,
No. 3365, pp. 534, 535.
Miss Edwards knew Egypt personally,
and its history completely; she mastered
the literature of research and exploration,
and caught the freshest news of every
discovery; she was profoundly interested in
whatever cast light on philological and
ethnical questions, or that related to the
arts or sciences of contemporaneous nations,
and withal she had a fair or respectable
knowledge of the hieroglyphic text. Her
talents, tastes, previous training, studies in
her adopted profession, eminently qualified
her for the post of honorary secretary of the
society which she, with Sir E. Wilson and
Prof. R. Stuart Poole founded in 1883. Nay,
was she not born to be an Egyptologist?
. . . Miss Edwards was the best delineator
that Old Egypt has ever had. "TheSaturday
Review" thinks "no other writer did
so much to render Egypt popular. . . .
Hers was pre-eminently the rôle of
interpreter" (April 23). Her lectures to American
audiences, in their substance and expressions,
most happily establish my claim.
. . . Miss Edwards's genius belongs to the
objective rather than the subjective school;
and she assiduously cultivated her powers
and tastes in the direction of objects rather
than subjects of thought, or, if the latter,
from without rather than within. She
splendidly illustrated what it is to see and
think through the eye rather than through
pure reason. I do not know indeed that she
ever read Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and
Hamilton; and although she could aptly
quote "The immortal Dogberry" and other
Shakespearean characters, yet I think she
enjoyed the wit more than the human
philosophy of Shakespeare. She was
searching, investigating, logical for a woman in
her deductions (witness her treatment of
the Ka question), but she lacked at least in
her novels, that imperial philosophic element,
that subjective insight and genius of
creation which permeates and sways the
"Daniel Derondas" that are given the world.
"Lord Brackenbury," so full of life, light,
color, and abounding in suggestions to the
imagination and eye, typifies, I think, the
objective novel as distinctively as
"Middlemarch" represents the subjective novel of
our day. This may explain why some people
fail to appreciate Miss Edwards's novels
who praise her as an
archaeologist In "Barbara's History," in "Lord
Brackenbury," and in other stories by Miss
Edwards, there are beautiful and graphic
descriptions of foreign scenery, and we meet
plenty of foreign people; but we feel that
the latter are described by an English
woman who has taken an immense amount
of pains to make herself acquainted with
their ways and their speech--they somewhat
lack spontaneity. In the two novels
named there are chapters so full of local
history and association that one thinks it
might be well to have the books for
companions when visiting the places describe
they are full of talent--in some places near
akin to
genius.--MACQUOID,
KATHARINE
SARAH, 1897,
Women Novelists of Queen
Victoria's Reign, p. 262.
(End.)
Amelia Blandford Edwards
1831-1892PERSONAL
GENERAL