Anne Thackeray Ritchie
Anne Thackeray Ritchie, born on June 9, 1837, in London, was the daughter of the renowned novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. Her early life was marked by personal challenges, including her mother’s mental health issues, which led to the girls being raised by their grandparents in Paris before returning to London. Ritchie served as her father's secretary, which nurtured her literary aspirations. She published her debut story in 1860, and her novel, *The Story of Elizabeth*, gained acclaim shortly thereafter, with Henry James praising her as "a woman of genius."
After her father's untimely death in 1863, Ritchie continued her literary career while navigating family responsibilities, including caring for her sister's children after her sister’s passing. In a surprising turn, she married her younger cousin, Richmond Thackeray Ritchie, and had two children. Ritchie remained prolific, producing novels, stories, and biographies, with her final novel, *Mrs. Dymond*, published in 1885. Later in life, she focused on her memoirs and edited works by her father, becoming a significant figure in literary circles, including connections to Virginia Woolf's family. Ritchie passed away on February 26, 1919, on the Isle of Wight, leaving behind a legacy intertwined with her father’s influence and her own literary contributions.
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Anne Thackeray Ritchie
Author
- Born: June 9, 1837
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: February 26, 1919
- Place of death: Isle of Wight, England
Biography
Anne Isabella Thackeray was born June 9, 1837, in London, England, the daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray and Isabella Shawe Thackeray. Her mother became increasingly unstable following the birth of a second daughter in 1840, and was confined to a mental institution for the remainder of her life. The girls were sent to Paris to live with their grandparents, but returned to London in 1846.
As a teenager, Ritchie served as her famous father’s secretary, taking dictation and copying his manuscripts, and he encouraged her to become a writer herself. She and her sister, Minny, accompanied their father on his travels in Europe and the United States. They were also friends with the children of many of Thackeray’s colleagues, including those of Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens.
Ritchie published her first story in 1860, and two years later, her novel The Story of Elizabeth was serialized in her father’s magazine, Cornhill, and published in book form the following year. This psychological tale of a young woman and her scheming, jealous mother was a popular success and led Henry James to call Ritchie “a woman of genius.” Ritchie was shaken by her father’s sudden death in 1863. In 1867, she began living with her sister and brother-in-law, the writer Leslie Stephen. After Minny died in childbirth in 1875, Anne remained in the Stephen household to care for his children.
Two years later, she surprised many by marrying her second cousin, the civil servant Richmond Thackeray Ritchie, who was seventeen years younger. In the next three years, the Ritchies had two children. Her husband eventually became undersecretary of state for India and was knighted in 1907. Motherhood did not slow Ritchie’s productivity as she continued turning out novels, stories, and essays. She also published Madame de Sevigne, her first biography. Her final novel, Mrs. Dymond, appeared in 1885. Like much of her fiction, it focuses on a strained mother-daughter relationship.
By the 1890’s, Ritchie began concentrating on her memoirs and editing a collection of her father’s works, for which she wrote biographical and critical introductions. She also spent much time with Stephen’s family, including the children of his second marriage, one of whom would become Virginia Woolf. Ritchie is the model for Mrs. Hilbery in Woolf’s 1919 novel Night and Day. In 1914, several of Ritchie’s friends, including James, commissioned a portrait by John Singer Sargent. Ritchie’s husband died in 1912. After her home was bombed during World War I, Ritchie and her daughter, Hester, moved to the Isle of Wight in 1918. She died there on February 26, 1919. Woolf wrote her aunt’s obituary for The Times Literary Supplement.