Identity:

Eliza Lynn Linton was the youngest daugter of the Rev. James Lynn and Charlotte, daughter of Samuel Goodenough, bishop of Carlisle. In 1858 she married a widower, William James Linton, and although they separated shortly afterwards they kept in contact for the rest of their lives and one of his children continued to live with her stepmother after he left for America in 1867.

Life:

She was a novelist and journalist. Her first attempts at fiction were not well received and she almost abandoned fiction when she accepted a position as a newspaper correspondent in Paris, where she remained until about 1854. Following her separation from her husband Mrs Linton returned to fiction with greater success. She was also a successful journalist, contributing to a number of newspapers and journals including the Morning Chronicle, the Saturday Review. Her essays ranged from a series in criticism of contemporary developments in feminine manners and character, which were reprinted in two volumes entitled The Girl of the Period, and other Essays (1883), to a volume on George Eliot for a series on female Victorian novelists.

Bibliography:

Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004.