Anna Maria Mackenzie

AMM published sixteen novels between 1782 and 1809: anonymously, under her second and third married names and under a pseudonym. She also published (under her first married name) a biblical paraphrase, and she claimed (not very convincingly) that two of her fictions were translated. She is not a very good writer (her style is over-ornamented and sometimes confusing) but her career exemplifies almost every trend of the period. She began with epistolary works and moved to third-person narrative, which regularly sets her story proper within a frame story and often alleges some ancient archival source. From contemporary settings she moved to the historical, to the remote in time and place, to the gothic and then to horror fiction. As her career first became established she was well advertised and gratifyingly reviewed, but both advertising and reviews dried up with time.