Isabella Neil Harwood

Isabella Neil Harwood is now virtually unknown as an author, despite the popularity of some of her sensation novels and plays. Her career began in 1864 when she published the novel Abbot's Cleve or, Can it be Proved? Her four later novels did not name her but referred to her only as the author of previous works. The two most successful were Raymond's Heroine, 1867, and Kathleen, 1868. She kept her fiction completely separate from her fourteen poetical dramas (many of them historical), published under the pseudonym Ross Neil. While several of these published plays were praised, very few were produced, and none except perhaps Elfinella, or, Home from Fairyland enjoyed popular stage success.