Mrs Molesworth

Mary Louisa Molesworth, née Stewart (29 May 1839 - 20 January 1921) was an English children's story writer who published under the pen name Mrs Molesworth. Her early adult novels, Lover and Husband (1869) to Cicely (1874), were published under the pen name Ennis Graham. Her name is sometimes spelled M. L. S. Molesworth. She was born in Rotterdam, the daughter of wealthy trader Charles Augustus Stewart (1809-1873) and his wife Agnes Janet Wilson (1810-1883). Mary was the youngest of four...See more

Mary Louisa Molesworth, née Stewart (29 May 1839 - 20 January 1921) was an English children's story writer who published under the pen name Mrs Molesworth. Her early adult novels, Lover and Husband (1869) to Cicely (1874), were published under the pen name Ennis Graham. Her name is sometimes spelled M. L. S. Molesworth. She was born in Rotterdam, the daughter of wealthy trader Charles Augustus Stewart (1809-1873) and his wife Agnes Janet Wilson (1810-1883). Mary was the youngest of four siblings. She was schooled in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and spent much of her childhood in Manchester. She married Major R. Molesworth, nephew of Viscount Molesworth, in 1861; they divorced in 1879. She spent the first few years of her marriage in Tabley Grange, near Knutsford in Cheshire, which she rented from George, 2nd Lord de Tabley. Mrs. Molesworth is best known for her children's stories, including Tell Me a Story (1875), Carrots (1876), The Cuckoo Clock (1877), The Tapestry Room (1879), and A Christmas Child (1880). She's been dubbed "the Jane Austen of the nursery," and The Carved Lions (1895) is considered "her masterpiece." According to Roger Lancelyn Green. See less