MBS
's cousin the disabled novelist and editor Frank Smedley
assisted her in her career, and was in turn helped by her encouragement and advice. The Dictionary of Literary Biography mistakenly calls him her brother.
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.
586
Yates, Edmund, and Frank Smedley. “Memorial Preface”. Gathered Leaves: Being a Collection of the Poetical Writings of the Late Frank E. Smedley, Virtue Brothers, p. xvi - xxiv.
xviii
Bellas, Tom. Emails to Orlando about Menella Bute Smedley.
Occupation
Menella Bute Smedley
For many years she was the housekeeper and amanuensis of her cousin Frank Smedley
, who died in 1864.
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.
586
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
MBS
's cousin Frank Smedley
, a successful novelist and editor who was connected with Sharpe's Magazine, seems to have assisted her materially in her early career.
Anthologization
Menella Bute Smedley
Later in the same year as her first publication, under the same initials, MBS
contributed A Very Woman to the collaborative collection Seven Tales by Seven Authors, edited by her cousin Frank Smedley
...
Timeline
4 October 1818: Frank Smedley, novelist, cousin and mentor...
Writing climate item
4 October 1818
Frank Smedley
, novelist, cousin and mentor of Menella Bute Smedley
, was born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
January 1849-March 1850: Frank Smedley's Frank Fairlegh; or, Scenes...
Writing climate item
January 1849-March 1850
Frank Smedley
's Frank Fairlegh; or, Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil was serialised, in monthly parts, in Sharpe's London Magazine.
1 May 1864: Frank Smedley, novelist, died at Grove Lodge,...
Writing climate item
1 May 1864
Frank Smedley
, novelist, died at Grove Lodge, Regent's Park, London.
Texts
Smedley, Menella Bute. “A Very Woman”. Seven Tales by Seven Authors, edited by Frank Smedley, G. Hoby, 1849, pp. 20-35.
Smedley, Frank. Frank Fairlegh; or, Scenes from the Life of a Private Pupil. A. Hall, Virtue, and Co., 1850.
Yates, Edmund, and Frank Smedley. “Memorial Preface”. Gathered Leaves: Being a Collection of the Poetical Writings of the Late Frank E. Smedley, Virtue Brothers, 1865, p. xvi - xxiv.