Elizabeth Thomas

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Under two successive pseudonyms, Elizabeth Thomas , was both novelist and poet. Late in life she explained that during her youth, in the days of the great Romantics, publishing poetry took more confidence than she possessed, though she smuggled some of it into her novels as chapter-headings.
  • BirthName: Elizabeth Wolferstan
  • Married: Thomas
  • Pseudonyms: Martha Homely; Mrs. Bridget Bluemantle; An Old Wife of Twenty Years; The Author of Purity of Heart

Milestones

Shortly before 7 October 1771

Elizabeth Wolferstan (later Elizabeth Thomas ) was born at Berry House near Hartland in Devon.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1803

Elizabeth Thomas published her first novel, not as Mrs. Bridget Bluemantle (her best-known pseudonym) but as Mrs. Martha Homely. It was entitled Maids As They Are Not, and Wives As They Are.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
2: 181

By October 1816

With Purity of Heart; or, The Ancient Costume. A Tale (and with a different publisher and different pseudonym), Elizabeth Thomas entered the specific battle-ground surrounding Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb .
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
2: 438

1 June 1855

Elizabeth Thomas died of bronchitis at Parkham in North Devon.

Biography

Origins

Shortly before 7 October 1771

Elizabeth Wolferstan (later Elizabeth Thomas ) was born at Berry House near Hartland in Devon.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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