Louisa Stuart Costello

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LSC wrote during the first half of the nineteenth century, producing five travel narratives, several volumes of poetry (both original and translated), numerous historical biographies, and more than twenty-five articles for a variety of noted periodicals. She wrote articles and reviews for the Athenæum but was best known for her travel writings and historical writings on France. LSC was able to support herself and her family with earnings drawn from her writings.
Sepia-toned albumen print of Louisa Stuart Costello by Herbert Watkins, 1857. She sits on a carved chair, gazing thoughtfully to her left, with her right hand up to her neckline. Her hair is in ringlets in front and decorated with bows. She wears a dark dress with ruffles descending the sleeves, and a white lace collar. National Portrait Gallery.

Milestones

1799

LSC was born, either in Ireland or in Sussex, the elder of two children.
The Feminist Companion and scholar Tamara Holloway give her place of birth as Ireland; the Dictionary of Literary Biography and both the old and new Dictionary of National Biography give it as Sussex, which is where the two latter also erroneously place her brother's birth.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Brothers, Barbara, and Julia Gergits, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 166. Gale Research.
166: 130
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.

1815

LSC , still in her teens and living in Paris after her father's death, published her first volume of poetry, The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, and Other Poems.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

By 22 May 1841

LSC published a historical novel, The Queen 's Poisoner; or, France in the Sixteenth Century: A Romance.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
708 (1841): 404

17 May 1856

LSC published her final poem, The Lay of the Stork, which mingles fantasy with the serious topic of the Crimean War.
Armstrong, Isobel et al., editors. Nineteenth-Century Women Poets. Clarendon Press.
200
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.

24 April 1870

LSC died of mouth cancer at Boulogne in Northern France.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.

Biography

Birth and Family

1799

LSC was born, either in Ireland or in Sussex, the elder of two children.
The Feminist Companion and scholar Tamara Holloway give her place of birth as Ireland; the Dictionary of Literary Biography and both the old and new Dictionary of National Biography give it as Sussex, which is where the two latter also erroneously place her brother's birth.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Brothers, Barbara, and Julia Gergits, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 166. Gale Research.
166: 130
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.

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