Kingsley, Mary St. Leger (1852–1931)
Kingsley, Mary St. Leger (1852–1931)
British writer. Name variations: Mary St. Leger Kingsley Harrison; (pseudonym) Lucas Malet. Born June 4, 1852, in Eversley, England; died Oct 27, 1931, in Tenby, Wales; dau. of novelist Charles Kingsley (1819–75) and Frances Grenfell; niece of writer Henry Kingsley; attended Slade School of Fine Art, London; m. Reverend William Harrison (sep., died 1887); children: (adopted dau.) Gabrielle Vallings.
Wrote more than 20 novels, many featuring themes of unhappy marriages, grotesque characters and macabre plots; adopted pseudonym of Lucas Malet in order to disassociate herself from her literary family; published 1st novel, Mrs Lorimer: A Sketch in Black and White (1882), but made her reputation with Colonel Enderby's Wife (1885); was a well-known member of literary circles in her day, friends with Henry James, among others; also wrote The Wages of Sin (1891), The Gateless Barrier (1900), Sir Richard Calmady (1901), The Far Horizon (1906), Deadham Hard (1919), The Survivors (1923) and The Dogs of Want (1924).