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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Emma Willsher Atkinson

Author: Emma Willsher Atkinson (1826–1900)

Biography: Emma Willsher Atkinson was born in 1826 in Greater Wigborough, Essex, the daughter of the Rev. John Atkinson, the curate of Peldon. She wrote a historical work Memoirs of the Queens of Prussia (1858) and a single novel Extremes (1859). The latter attained some success being reprinted at least once. In 1861, she lived with her brother John and sister Martha in Yorkshire. In 1871, she lived with another brother Charles on his farm in Lincolnshire. She never married and died in 1900 in Kent. Note: several sources (e.g., the DNB) erroneously list Atkinson as the daughter of explorer Thomas Witlam Atkinson. Other sources attribute two novels My Lady (1858) and The Firstborn (1860) to Atkinson. There is no evidence she wrote these two titles.

References: British Census (1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891); pers inf (Nick Fielding)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Extremes.  2 vol.  London: Smith, Elder, 1859.