Author: Amy Mary Marshall
Author: Amy Mary Marshall (1838–1914)
Alternate Name(s): Amelia Mary Bourton Marshall (legal name); Bourton Marshall (pseudonym)
Biography: Amy Mary Marshall was born on 28 February 1838 in Leamington. Her parents cannot be traced, but she had connections to the Bloomer and Longmore families of Worcester. According her cousin John Longmore (1794–1884), "Miss Marshall has to get her own living, and has not a friend in the world that she can look to but an uncle at Birmingham... and myself." She turned to literary work and became a tireless writer for newspapers. Part of her work included fiction: her first novel The Shadow of Erksdale (1875) was published under the pseudonym "Bourton Marshall," a name she later adopted as her legal name. Under that name, she wrote another dozen newspaper serial novels, none of which it appears were published in book form. She suffered from bouts of ill health, exasperated by her literary labours. Marshall applied twice to the Royal Literary Fund, the first time with over twenty letters of support from newspaper editors around the country. Both times she was denied. She died in 1914 in Aston.
Author Tags:
References: British Census (1871, 1881, 1911); RLF (case number 2716); Wellcome Collection (Sir Thomas Longmore Archive)
Fiction Titles:
- The Shadow of Erksdale: A Novel. 3 vol. London: Samuel Tinsley, 1875.