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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: James Redding Ware

Author: James Redding Ware (1832–1901)

Alternate Name(s): Andrew Forrester (pseudonym)

Biography: James Redding Ware was born in 1832 in Southwark, the son of grocer James Ware and his wife Elizabeth (née Redding). He followed his father's trade for a time, but by the 1860s he had turned to literary work. He followed his first novel The Fortunes of the House of Pennyl (1860) with detective fiction featuring the first women detective under the pseudonym "Andrew Forrester." (Much credit must be given to Judith Flanders who identified this pseudonym.) Ware went on to write plays, books, and journalism, much of the latter anonymous. He never married and died on 23 March 1909 in Peckham.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1841, 1881, 1901); Judith Flanders, The Invention of Murder (2011); Probate

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Fortunes of the House of Pennyl: A Romance of England in the Last Century.  1 vol.  London: James Blackwood, 1860.
  2. The Revelations of a Private Detective.  1 vol.  London: Ward and Lock, 1863.
  3. Secret Service: or, Recollections of a City Detective.  1 vol.  London: Ward and Lock, 1864.
  4. The Female Detective.  1 vol.  London: Ward and Lock, 1864.
  5. Before the Bench: Sketches of Police Court Life.  1 vol.  London: Dipose, 1880.