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Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant

(1828-1897), Novelist and biographer

Sitter in 3 portraits
The Scottish-born writer was a prolific novelist who worked primarily to support an extended household after the death of her husband, Frank, an artist. She produced a series of popular titles of which the four Chronicles of Carlingford (1862-65, 1876) are the best known. She also contributed a series of articles on autobiographies for Blackwoods magazine during the 1880s. Unlike Harriet Martineau, whose Autobiography she criticised, Oliphant considered her own professional success as secondary to her domestic responsibilities. As a consequence, her autobiography is intimate and personal. Initially intended for her children, its eventual publication was motivated by financial necessity.

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Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant, by Frederick Sandys - NPG 5391

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant

by Frederick Sandys
chalk, 1881
NPG 5391

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant, by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn - NPG P1700(3b)

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant

by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn
albumen print, before 1894
NPG P1700(3b)

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant, by Thomas Rodger - NPG x8721

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant

by Thomas Rodger
albumen carte-de-visite, 1860s
NPG x8721

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