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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Josephine Elizabeth Campbell

Author: Josephine Elizabeth Campbell (1860–1921)

Alternate Name(s): Ellis (maiden name); Mrs. Vere Campbell (familiar name)

Biography: Josephine Elizabeth Campbell was born in 1860 in Carmarthanshire, Wales, the daughter of Rev. Charles Bowen Ellis (1821–1887), a Moravian minister and missionary. She was educated at Moravian schools in England and Germany before she married Vere Douglas Campbell, the son of a London doctor. The marriage failed due to Vere Campbell's alcoholism and improvidence. The couple separated after the birth of their third child in 1891. Campbell endured years of poverty as she struggled to support herself and her daughters by writing novels (mostly of the sensational kind) and plays (of which a handful were produced). Vere Campbell died in 1906. The family recovered through the pen of Campbell's daughter, Gabrielle Margaret Vere Campbell (1888–1952), who wrote bestselling novels under the pseudonym "Marjorie Bowen." Campbell died in 1921.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1901); DNB (Marjorie Bowen); Times (22 October 1906; 27 December 1952)

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Crime of Keziah Keene.  1 vol.  London: Ward and Downey, 1889.
  2. Of this Death.  2 vol.  London: Ward and Downey, 1891.
  3. The Shibboleth.  1 vol.  London: Ward and Downey, 1894.
  4. The Problem of Prejudice.  1 vol.  London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896.