   margaret oliphant wilson oliphant (nÃ©e margaret oliphant wilson) (4 april 1828 â 25 june 1897), was a scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as mrs. oliphant. her fictional works encompass "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural".oliphant, margaret. miss majoribanks. ed. elisabeth jay. new york: penguin classics, 1999, p. vii. ==life== the daughter of francis w. wilson (c.1788â1858), a clerk, and his wife, margaret oliphant (c.1789â1854), she was born at wallyford, near musselburgh, east lothian, and spent her childhood at lasswade (near dalkeith), glasgow and liverpool. as a girl, she constantly experimented with writing. in 1849 she had her first novel published: passages in the life of mrs. margaret maitland. this dealt with the scottish free church movement, with which mr. and mrs. wilson both sympathised, and met with some success. it was followed by caleb field in 1851, the year in which she met the publisher william blackwood in edinburgh and was invited to contribute to the famous blackwood's magazine. the connection was to last for her whole lifetime, during which she contributed well over 100 articles, including, a critique of the character of arthur dimmesdale in nathaniel hawthorne's the scarlet letter. thumb|200px|memorial to mrs oliphant in st giles cathedral edinburgh. in may 1852, she married her cousin, frank wilson oliphant, at birkenhead, and settled at harrington square in london. an artist working mainly in stained glass, her husband had delicate health, and three of their six children died in infancy,according to elizabeth jay, in the introduction of margaret oliphant's autobiography (publis
1828_births 1897_deaths 19th-century_British_novelists 19th-century_Scottish_writers 19th-century_women_writers Ghost_story_writers People_from_East_Lothian Scottish_autobiographers Scottish_historical_novelists Scottish_horror_writers Scottish_women_novelists Scottish_women_writers Victorian_novelists Victorian_women_writers Women_horror_writers