Women in the Literary Market 1800-1900
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Mary Cholmondeley, 1859-1925
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Mary Cholmondeley was born in Shropshire in 1859, the eldest daughter of a vicar. Early on she was forced to assume management of household and parish duties when her mother became ill. After her mother's death, Cholmondeley continued to live at home, caring for her father until he died in 1910. She remained unmarried.

Cholmondeley found liberation from her family responsibilities in her writings. In 1877, she wrote in her journal, "What a pleasure and interest it would be to me in life to write books. I must strike out a line of some kind, and if I do not marry (for at best that is hardly likely, as I possess neither beauty nor charms) I should want some definite occupa-tion, besides the home duties." She went on to write more than 15 novels.

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portrait of Mary Cholmondeley
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introduction
early role models
entering the literary market
learned poets
getting into print
charlotte bronte and george eliot
sin and sensation
new women
education
journalism
activism
L.T. Meade
the three volume format
credits
home
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