Christian Isobel Johnstone

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CIJ is remarkable both for her pioneering of the Scottish national tale (in the early nineteenth century, neck and neck with Sir Walter Scott ) and for her long-continuing career in journalism, as contributor and editor (the latter role unprecedented for one of her sex). Her non-fiction for adults ranged from cookery to the politics of resistance. She also wrote children's books both fictional and non-fictional.

Milestones

12 June 1781

Christian Isobel Tod or Todd (later Johnstone) was born in Edinburgh only a couple of weeks after her parents married.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Perkins, Pamela. Women Writers and the Edinburgh Enlightenment. Rodopi.
209

1814

Christian Isobel McLeish (later Johnstone) anonymously issued what may or may not be her first book: a four-volume novel, The Saxon and the Gael; or, The Northern Metropolis: including a view of the Lowland and Highland Character.
Johnstone, Christian Isobel. The Saxon and the Gael. T. Tegg.
title-page
Perkins, Pamela. Women Writers and the Edinburgh Enlightenment. Rodopi.
211

By April 1815

Christian Isobel McLeish (later Johnstone) published, through a conger of publishers in Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, her ground-breaking Clan-Albin: A National Tale.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
5th ser. 1 (1815): 426

26 August 1857

CIJ died at her Edinburgh home, of bronchitis and heart disease; her husband followed her only about two months later.
Feminist Companion Archive.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth

12 June 1781

Christian Isobel Tod or Todd (later Johnstone) was born in Edinburgh only a couple of weeks after her parents married.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Perkins, Pamela. Women Writers and the Edinburgh Enlightenment. Rodopi.
209