Eliza Kirkham Mathews

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EKM published less than has been supposed. Only her children's books, two volumes of poems, and two novels (melodramatic but heartfelt, presenting actual, financial, as well as romance-type struggles) pose no problems of attribution. She began but left unfinished an adaptation for the stage, which may or may not have been her only work in this genre. Two novels sometimes ascribed to her, with a similar but different name, cannot be hers. Another series of novels commonly attributed to her, published by Hookham , has now been shown to be by Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins .

Milestones

5 August 1772

Eliza Kirkham Strong (later EKM ) was born at Exeter, one of at least four children.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Soon after 22 March 1801

EKM published anonymously with the Minerva Press a remarkable, gothic-flavoured novel, the only one to be incontrovertibly ascribed to her: What Has Been: A Novel.
Mathews, Anne Jackson. Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian. R. Bentley.
1: 321

25 May 1802

EKM died of tuberculosis in York after painful weeks of spitting blood.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, however, says she died in London.
Mathews, Eliza Kirkham. Poems. W. Sheardown.
prelims

Biography

Birth and Family

5 August 1772

Eliza Kirkham Strong (later EKM ) was born at Exeter, one of at least four children.
“FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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