Louisa Molesworth
Louisa Molesworth, born Mary Louisa Stewart on May 29, 1839, in Rotterdam, was a prominent Victorian author known for her contributions to children's literature. Raised in a strict Scottish Calvinist family, she spent her formative years in Manchester and was educated at home, where she developed a passion for storytelling. Molesworth began her literary career by publishing stories in magazines as a teenager and later wrote novels under the pen name Ennis Graham. After marrying Major Richard Molesworth and having seven children, she gained fame for her children's stories, particularly with her collection "Tell Me a Story" published in 1875.
Molesworth's works often reflected her own experiences and were characterized by a blend of middle-class life and fantastical elements, aimed at providing joy rather than moral lessons. Despite the challenges in her marriage, particularly due to her husband's temperamental nature following his war injuries, she continued to write prolifically, eventually publishing over one hundred works. Her literature was recognized and appreciated both critically and publicly during her lifetime, attracting readers worldwide. Although her popularity waned in her later years, Louisa Molesworth remains an influential figure in the history of children's fiction, noted for her unique approach to storytelling. She passed away on July 20, 1921, leaving behind a legacy that has begun to fade from contemporary view.
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Louisa Molesworth
Writer
- Born: May 29, 1839
- Birthplace: Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Died: January 20, 1921
Biography
Mary Louisa Stewart was born on May 29, 1839, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her parents, strict Scottish Calvinists, were Agnes Jane Wilson Stewart and Charles Augustus Stewart, a partner in a shipping business. She also had three brothers and two sisters. When Louisa was still a toddler, the family moved to Manchester, England, where she grew up. Louisa was home-schooled by her mother, and spent time with her grandmother, an accomplished storyteller. Later she attended a boarding school in Switzerland.
Stewart was interested in reading and writing, and received encouragement from the Reverend William Gaskell, husband of the British novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. Following her grandmother’s tradition, Louisa made up stories to tell her brothers and sisters, and published some of them in magazines while she was still in her teens. In 1861, Louisa married Major Richard Molesworth, an officer in the Royal Dragoons. She and her husband had seven children, two of whom, Richard Walter and Violet, died in childhood. Louisa read to them daily, choosing both published works and her original stories.
After the death of the second child, she published four novels for adults under the name Ennis Graham. Providing insightful glimpses of middle-class Victorian life and unhappy marriages, they sold respectably, but it was her children’s stories, beginning with the collection Tell Me a Story (1875), that made her a sensation. In 1877, she began using the name Mrs. Molesworth, the name that appeared on her most popular books, although she legally separated from her husband in 1879. Major Molesworth, wounded in the head in the Crimean War, was subject to temper flashes that made him a difficult husband.
She moved for a time to France and Germany, but settled again in England in 1883. One of her most popular books, The Carved Lions (1895), is typical of Molesworth’s work, in being based loosely on her own life, in featuring daily middle-class life as well as elements of fantasy and delight, and in using diction intended to stretch her readers’ vocabulary. Through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Molesworth published one hundred and one works for children and adults, as well as essays about children’s literature. On July 20, 1921, she died of heart failure.
Molesworth’s books were unusual in their time because the author was more concerned with providing pleasure than with teaching lessons. Molesworth herself had grown up in a strictly religious home, and she was determined in her own stories to help children greet the world without fear. She did publish Bible stories and instructive tales with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, but even these were more subtly didactic than others of their type.
During her lifetime, Molesworth’s books were popular around the world, and well regarded by critics. She received letters of thanks from the crown prince of Naples and the Princess of Wales. Although her books fell out of favor late in her career and have nearly disappeared from view, Molesworth was one of the most influential writers of children’s fiction during the nineteenth century.