Somerville, E. (1858–1949)

Irish writer. Name variations: Edith Somerville. Born Edith Œnone Somerville, May 2, 1858, in Corfu, Greece; died in Castletownshend, Co. Cork, Ireland, Oct 8, 1949; dau. of Thomas Henry Somerville and Adelaide (Coghill) Somerville; never married; no children.

Collaborator with cousin Violet Martin on novels and other writings which chronicled the declining fortunes of their class, the Anglo-Irish gentry, in the decades before Irish independence; spent most of life at family home in Castletownshend, Co. Cork; studied art (1870s–80s); met cousin Violet Martin (1886) and began their literary collaboration; published 1st collaborative novel, An Irish Cousin (1889) and between then and Martin's death (1915) published 10 books and numerous articles in British and Irish periodicals; published The Real Charlotte (1893), considered the best work; published Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. (1899), an enormous success; continued the collaboration after Martin's death with the help of spiritualism and seances and wrote 14 other books; had exhibitions of her paintings and also had a horse-coping business (1920s–30s); 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) and The States through Irish Eyes (1930). Elected to Irish Academy of Letters (1933); received Gregory Gold Medal, Irish Academy of Letters (1941).

See also Geraldine Dorothy Cummins, Dr E.ΠSomerville (Andrew Dakers, 1952); Maurice Collis, Somerville and Ross: A Biography (Faber & Faber, 1968); John Cronin, Somerville and Ross (Bucknell U. Press, 1972); The Selected Letters of Somerville and Ross (ed. by Gifford Lewis, Faber & Faber, 1989); and Women in World History.