Emma Caroline Wood

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ECW did not begin her publishing career until past the age of sixty. Then, following her husband's death, she produced an average of a book a year, to almost exclusively negative reviews. The publications included fourteen novels, many with romantic plots, a book of poetry co-authored with her daughter , and two poetry collections which she selected, arranged and prefaced. A compilation of her correspondence appeared posthumously. Though well published and in public demand during her life time, she has received very little recent critical attention.
  • BirthName: Emma Caroline
    Sources are not consistent as to whether her name is spelled Caroline or Carolina.
    Michell
  • Married: Wood
  • Pseudonyms: C. Sylvester; Helen Carr
    Allibone, S. Austin, editor. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased. Gale Research, 1965.
    Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
    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, 1990.
    Marlow, Joyce. The Uncrowned Queen of Ireland: The Life of ’Kitty’ O’Shea. Saturday Review Press, 1975.
    10
    qtd. in
    Athenæum. J. Lection.
    1970 (1865): 147

  • Titled: Lady
    She was Mrs Wood for twenty-three years before her husband inherited his family's baronetcy.
    Bradhurst, Minna Evangeline. A Century of Letters. Printed for private circulation by R. E. Thomas and Newman, 1929.
    21
  • Indexed: E., Lady Wood

Milestones

1802

Emma Caroline Michell (later ECW ) was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the youngest of two sons and three daughters in her family.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
Allibone, S. Austin, editor. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased. Gale Research, 1965.
Bradhurst, Minna Evangeline. A Century of Letters. Printed for private circulation by R. E. Thomas and Newman, 1929.
3

By 29 July 1865

ECW and her daughter Anna Steele published a book which was Emma's first (but Anna's second): Ephemera, a co-authored collection of poetry under the pseudonyms Helen and Gabrielle Carr.
Marlow, Joyce. The Uncrowned Queen of Ireland: The Life of ’Kitty’ O’Shea. Saturday Review Press, 1975.
9-10

By 22 March 1879

Under her own name ECW published her final novel, Youth on the Prow (whose title is quoted from Thomas Gray ), again in three volumes.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2682 (1879): 375

December 1879

ECW died at Belhus Park, South Ockendon, Essex, the house of her son-in-law Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard .
Bradhurst, Minna Evangeline. A Century of Letters. Printed for private circulation by R. E. Thomas and Newman, 1929.
113
Marlow, Joyce. The Uncrowned Queen of Ireland: The Life of ’Kitty’ O’Shea. Saturday Review Press, 1975.
49

Biography

Birth, Family, and Early Years

1802

Emma Caroline Michell (later ECW ) was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the youngest of two sons and three daughters in her family.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
Allibone, S. Austin, editor. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased. Gale Research, 1965.
Bradhurst, Minna Evangeline. A Century of Letters. Printed for private circulation by R. E. Thomas and Newman, 1929.
3

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