The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-11
FAMOUS WRITER'S.
Women Who Have Written Books
Which Are Widely Read.
THEIR HOME LIFE AND THE WAY
THEIR WORK Is DONE.

-
hooSes, Marie Corelli, Mrs. Braddon,
sarah Grand and Ouida-The Estimate
OF Cyntc of the Work of the Famous
French Woman.
Inc personality of public characters
creators in every branch Of endeayor-
never ceases to attract the multitude.
what some one has done and done we'll
has been rich reading from Plutarch
down. AS woman FORCES into we'll
earned prominence by her independent
achievements, she engrosses in the broad
or sphere the attention that in all the
centuries Of civilization has been hers as
queen of the home.
women that write are always interest
ing women, provided always they write
well and such as arc herein mentioned,
in extracts from the London Woman at
Home, do write well.
A woman that has writ large page in
her time is Mary E. Braddon, daughter
of London solicitor, and widow of John
Maxwell, the publisher.
More than fifty novels she has written
succeeded her first successes, and Miss
Braddon still remains one of the most
popular story writers of the day. In her
latest work, London Pride" the scene
is laid in the period of the restoration.
She spends her time between Lichfield
house. her beautiful home at Richmond,
and Annesley Bank, in the New Forest.
She is not without her hobbies, among
them being passion for china collecting.
Some very beautiful specimens adorn her
rooms.
JOHN OLIVER HOBBIES.
John Oliver Hobbies is Pearl Mary Tere-
sa Craigie. Mrs. Craigie, says the above
named magazine, has all the easy grace
and vivacity of the American woman.
She can turn from grave to gay, from the
dioussionsof deep philosophy to the latest
news in the social world, with equal
Morgan Richards, and it is in her par
ent's beautiful home at Lancaster Gate
that Mr.. Craigie and her little boy now
make their home. Boston is her native
place, but she laughingly calls herself a
citizen of the world, for she began her
travels at the age of three, when she was
taken the usual American tour through
Europe by her parents. and she has
travelled extensively ever since. She
studied In Rome and Paris, and also in
London, where she attended Professor
Goodwin's Greek and Latin lectures at
University College. She is an accomplished
musician, and received much of her
training at our own Royal Academy of
Music.
John Oliver Hobbies was married at 10
to Mr.. Reginald Walpole Craigie, from
whom, in order to secure the custody and
sole guardianship of her son, she OBJ
tanned, according to the English law,
divorce. About three years after her
marriage she published her first story,
Some Emotions and Moral; which
Immediately lifted her into notice as a
writer of thought and originality. Mrs.
Craigie's succeeding books were 1.-THE
Sinners Comedy" and "a Study in
Temptations Her latest work, "The
Herb Moon is perhaps the most enter
tanning book which she has written, and
has more of plot in it than her other
stories.
For the last twosyears Mrs. Craigie has
been busily occupied with her new book,
The School for Saints" Book collect
ing is her great hobby, and she has some
5000 volumes, many of them rare and
beautiful editions. Some five years ago
Mrs. Craigie embraced the Roman Catho-
lie religion. She never describes living
characters, and has never attempted to
write what is commonly called "a sooie-
ty novel; She adopted the name Of John
Oliver Hobbies to keep her from being
sentimental, so she says
MARIE CORELLI.
Marie Corelli still makes her London
home in the house in Longridge road,
Earls' court, where her adopted father,
Dr. Charles Mackay ,Fthe author and poet,
used to gather his literary friends around
him. She is of Italian extraction, and
has also some Highland blood in her
veins, and it is possibly this mingling
OF the warm, voluptuous temperament of
the South with the breezy nature of the
Celt which has made the novelist one of
the most interesting personalities of the
time.
At the early age of IA she composed an
elaborate opera. Overstudy, however,
told upon her health, and after her return
home for rest she had curious psyche
logical experience, in which it seemed as
though her spirit had for time left the
body, a feeling so real and vivid that she
was impelled, she says, to embody it in
book. The great success which attend
cd this her first effort, 1.-THE Romance of
Two Worlds led her to renounce a mu-
steal for literary career, with what sue
cess the world knows.
Miss Corelli is very methodical in her
work, and is usually in her study by 9
o'clock, where she breakfasts alone, in
order that nothing may disturb her