Elizabeth Meeke

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EM , who was not correctly identified until 2013, was unusually prolific among novelists (twenty-six titles), children's writers, and translators of the Romantic period. (She also compiled an anthology for children.) She issued through the Minerva Press an output of fiction which exceeds that of any other novelist of the time except Sir Walter Scott and Barbara Hofland .
Garside, Peter. “The English Novel in the Romantic Era: Consolidation and Dispersal”. The English Novel 1770-1829, edited by Peter Garside et al., Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 2: 15 - 103.
2: 64
She used her own name, a regular pseudonym, and occasional anonymity. She is shameless in her use of improbable plot twists, but highly intelligent in authorial comments.
  • BirthName: Elizabeth Allen
    Macdonald, Simon. “Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist”. Review of English Studies, Oxford University Press, 8 Feb. 2013.

  • Nickname: Bessy
  • Self-constructed: Mrs Bruce
    EM seems to have gone under this name as a woman scandalously separated from her husband.
  • Married: Meeke; Rawlings
  • Pseudonyms: Gabrielli
    This name was probably suggested by that of the singer Caterina Gabrielli , whom the Burney family much admired, and whom the future EM had heard in 1775.
    ; The Author of The Mysterious Wife; The Author of The Sicilian
    EM frequently gives her name or pseudonym on title-pages, as well as alluding to her previous works.

  • Indexed: Elizabeth Meeke
    A clergyman's wife named Mary Meeke , who died in 1816, was identified as probably Mrs Meeke the novelist in the original Dictionary of National Biography entry. This identification stuck for generations of scholars, though a Minerva Press catalogue of 1798 had already named the novelist as Elizabeth Meeke.
    Macdonald, Simon. “Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist”. Review of English Studies, Oxford University Press, 8 Feb. 2013.
    ; Mrs Meeke; Mrs Meek

Milestones

13 November 1761

Elizabeth Allen (later EM ) was born at King's Lynn, the youngest of three children. She was baptised the same day at St Margaret's Church there.
Legend had it that in 1421 St Margaret's Church at King's Lynn was saved from destruction by fire by the prayers of Margery Kempe .
Macdonald, Simon. “Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist”. Review of English Studies, Oxford University Press, 8 Feb. 2013.

Probably late July 1795

EM began her publishing career with Count St. Blancard; or, The Prejudiced Judge, A Novel, in three volumes, which its own last page calls a translation; her name appears as Mrs. Meek.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
1: 643

Probably 1825

What seems to be the last publication by EM (now Mrs Rawlings) appeared with her name the year before her death: an anthology for children entitled The Parent's Offering to a Good Child: A Collection of Interesting Tales.
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.

Before October 1826

EM (now Mrs Rawlings) died at her home somewhere in rural England.
Macdonald, Simon. “Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist”. Review of English Studies, Oxford University Press, 8 Feb. 2013.

Biography

Birth and Family

13 November 1761

Elizabeth Allen (later EM ) was born at King's Lynn, the youngest of three children. She was baptised the same day at St Margaret's Church there.
Legend had it that in 1421 St Margaret's Church at King's Lynn was saved from destruction by fire by the prayers of Margery Kempe .
Macdonald, Simon. “Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist”. Review of English Studies, Oxford University Press, 8 Feb. 2013.