Duncan, Sara Jeanette (1861–1922)
Duncan, Sara Jeanette (1861–1922)
Canadian writer. Name variations: Sara Janet Duncan, S.J. Cotes, Sara Jeanette Duncan Cotes; (pseudonym) Garth Grafton. Born Sara Jeanette Duncan, Dec 22, 1861, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada; died of bronchial pneumonia, July 22, 1922, in Ashtead, Surrey, England; m. Everard Cotes (museum curator), 1890.
Prolific writer of novels and travel diaries, was hired to work on the Toronto Globe (1886), the 1st woman to join the editorial staff of a Canadian newspaper; gave love and relationship advice, cooking tips and recipes, and fashion pointers; also wrote for Washington Post, Toronto Globe, Montreal Star, and The Week under pseudonym Garth Grafton; undertook around world trip with journalist Lily Lewis (1888), resulting in 1st full-length book Round the World by Ourselves (1890); married Calcutta museum curator Everard Cotes and spent next 25 years in India; wrote numerous novels about life and politics in India, including The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib (1893); is best known for novel The Imperialist (1904) which describes small-town life in Canada; also wrote A Daughter of Today (1891), Hilda: A Story of Calcutta (1894), The Story of Sonny Sahib (1894), His Honor and a Lady (1898), An American Girl in London (1898) and The Pool in the Dessert (1903).
See also Marian Fowler, Redney: A Life of Sarah Jeanette Duncan (Penguin London, 1985).