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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Alice Maud Browne

Author: Alice Maud Browne (1848–1936)

Alternate Name(s): John Ryce (pseudonym)

Biography: Alice Maud Browne was born in 1848 in Manchester, the daughter of Thomas Samuel Browne and Charlotte Brooks. Sometime after her mother died in 1854, her father emigrated to Australia (where he died in 1882) leaving Alice and her sisters with an aunt, Mary Salter Browne. All three sisters taught at their aunt's school in Leamington, Warwickshire: Alice taught gymnastics and dance, Emilie drawing, and Charlotte English. Relatively late in life, Browne wrote a novel, The Rector of Amesty (1891) under the pseudonym "John Ryce" (combining parts of the names "Mary" and "Alice"). Browne followed these books with two other novels: An Oath in Heaven: An Early Victorian Romance (1903) and The Colony of God (1923). She continued to live with her aunt Mary until the latter's death in 1906 and she published privately a collection of their letters, You and I Together Love (1911). Browne never married, suffered deafness, and traveled widely, visiting Italy, Russia, and Sweden. She died in 1936.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1881, 1901); pers inf Glenda Browne and Derrick Browne

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Rector of Amesty: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Sampson Low, 1891.