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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Maria Catherine Bishop

Author: Maria Catherine Bishop (1830–1898)

Alternate Name(s): O'Connor Morris (maiden name); L. S. Lavenu (pseudonym)

Biography: Maria Catherine O'Connor Morris was born in 1830 in Ireland, the daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Morris of Gartnamona and his wife Elizabeth O'Connor. Morris turned to literature at a young age by becoming a contributor to the Pall Mall Gazette, Saturday Review, and Spectator. In addition, she wrote two novels, Erlesmere (1856) and Gaston Bligh (1858), under the pseudonym "L. S. Lavenu." She went on to write a third novel as well as several nonfiction works. In 1875, she married the stokebroker W. H. Bishop. She died in 1898 in Tunbridge Wells.

Author Tags:

References: British Census (1871, 1881); Burke; Kent and Sussex Courier (18 November 1898)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Erlesmere: or, Contrasts of Character.  2 vol.  London: Smith, Elder, 1856.
  2. Gaston Bligh: A Novel.  2 vol.  London: Smith, Elder, 1858.
  3. Elizabeth Eden: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Sampson Low, 1878.