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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Mary Popham Blyth

Author: Mary Popham Blyth (1831–1915)

Alternate Name(s): May Beverley (pseudonym)

Biography: Mary Popham Blyth was born in 1831 in Beverley, Yorkshire, the daughter of the Rev. George Blanchard Blyth, the vicar of Newbald. Her eldest brother was George Francis Popham Blyth (1832–1914) the first Bishop of Jerusalem and the East. Blyth traveled in the East, including India (she may have traveled with her brother). In her teens, she wrote the poem A Legend of the Rhone (1858) and followed it with a novel The Moor Cottage (1860) published under the pseudonym "May Beverley." Years later she wrote more novels, including Antoinette: A Tale of the Ancien Régime (1888) and The Queen's Jewel: A Story of Queen Anne's Day (1889). Thereafter she appears to have given up writing. She died in 1915 in Sussex.

References: Kailey Fukushima, Karen Bourrier, and Janice Parker, "The Lives of Mistresses and Maids: Editing Victorian Correspondence with Genealogy, Prosopography, and the TEI," Digital Humanities Quarterly (2022); British Census (1881, 1901); DNB (George Francis Popham Blyth)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Little Estella and Other Fairy Tales: For the Young.  1 vol.  London: Macmillan, 1860.
  2. The Moor Cottage: A Tale of Home Life.  1 vol.  London: Macmillan, 1861.
  3. The City of the Plain: An Allegory; and Other Tales.  1 vol.  London: J. T. Hayes, 1872.
  4. Antoinette: A Tale of the Ancien Régime.  2 vol.  London: Bentley, 1888.
  5. The Queen's Jewel: A Story of Queen Anne's Day.  1 vol.  London: Bentley, 1889.