Martin, Violet (1862–1915)

Irish writer. Name variations: Martin Ross. Born Violet Florence Martin, June 11, 1862, at Ross House, Oughterard, Co. Galway, Ireland; died Dec 21, 1915, in Cork, Ireland; dau. of James Martin and Anna Selina (Fox) Martin; sister of Robert Martin (journalist and writer of some prominence); educated at home and briefly at Alexandra College, Dublin; never married; no children.

Writer, who collaborated with cousin E. Somerville (under name Martin Ross) on novels and other writings which chronicled the declining fortunes of their class, the Anglo-Irish gentry, in the decades before Irish independence; spent early years at Ross; after father's death (1872), moved with family to Dublin and also spent some time in England; 1st met cousin Edith Somerville (1886); returned to Ross (1888) but stayed frequently at Edith's family home in Castletownshend; published 1st collaborative novel, An Irish Cousin (1889), which received good reviews; published The Real Charlotte (1893), considered the best work; published Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899), an enormous success; after mother's death (1906), lived at Castletownshend permanently; health deteriorated following a serious accident (1898); died from a brain tumor (1915). Writings include Through Connemara in a Governess Cart (1893), In The Vine Country (1893), Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1908), In Mr Knox's Country (1915), Irish Memories (1917), Mount Music (1919), Wheeltracks (1923), The Big House of Inver (1999), The States through Irish Eyes (1930).

See also Maurice Collis, Somerville and Ross: A Biography (Faber, 1968); John Cronin, Somerville and Ross (Bucknell U. Press, 1972); The Selected Letters of Somerville and Ross (ed. by Gifford Lewis, Faber, 1989); and Women in World History.