The record-union., 1897-06-28
She Attained the Reputation as a Prolific
Author.
The Volume of Work Turned Out
by Her Was Remarkable, a
Three-VoIume Novel Yearly
Coming from Her Pen, Besides
Lesser Contri Her
Winds, and as Healthy.

LONDON, June 26-Mrs Margaret
Oliphant the novelist, biographer and
historian, died SATURDAY. evening Of
cancer. She was 70 years old.
Mrs Oliphant, who was known before
her marriage as Miss Margaret 0. Will
son, was of Scotch parentage, and was
born at Wallyford, Midlothian. She
published her first novel, Passages in
the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland .
before she was p, and its immediate
success induced her to devote herself to
literary work. She has since attained
a very distinguished reputation as one
OF the most prolific authors of her time.
Many of her novels are noteworthy for
the faithful sketches of Scottish life and
character, but perhaps her most endur-
ing fame rests on her Chronicles of
Carlingford, a series of stories, the
first of which appeared in 1862.
The volume of work turned out by
Mrs. Oliphant was remarkable. Scarcely
a year has passed since she began to
write without a three-volume novel
coming from her overfioWing mind, be-
sides continuous lesser contributions to
periodical literature. She edited Black
woods Foreign Classics for English
Readers, and herself contributed vol
umes on Dante and Cervantes. She
wrote over forty novels, and the marked
features of all her work were nicely of
detail in narrative, keen delineation of
country life and character, especially
among Scots, an exquisite sense of
humor-Mrs. Oliphant might have Gre
ated Mrs. Poyser if she had thought
enough about such types-and a con-
sistent refusal to have anything to do
with the criminal classes, titled or COM
mon. Her books are like fresh sea
winds and as healthy.
But although Mrs. Oliphant be-
came more widely known as a novelist
than in any other branch of literary
work, her powers as biographer and
historian were quite as great as her gifts
in telling stories. In "A Literary His
tory of England in the End of the Eigh
teenth and Beginning of the Nineteenth
Century" she was at her very best. The
narrative flows quickly and smoothly,
the interest is wholly sustained, and
the people seem contemporaneous with
the reader. Her latest work of this
class, "The Victorian Age of English
was cQudlly CledI, SuSS6S-
tive and admirable ''The Makers of
Florence" "The Makers of Venice" and
1.-THE Makers of Rome are three vol
uInes in which history and biography
are admirably blended.
In some of her later novels Mrs Oil
phant gave freer rein to her underly-
ing mysticism. "a Little Pilgrim in the
Unseen" is a fantastic story of a happy
spirit content to roam in her new world.
"Old Lady Mary" is a speculative study
of a spirit who desires to come back to
earth to right wrong once done, and
who finds that after she has come back
she cannot communicate with beings
still in this life. Neither of these is equal
in strength or fascination to 1.-The Be-
leaguered City" which tells of the in
vasion of an old French town by the
countless souls of all its departed citi-
zens ard the expulsion of the living.
Mrs. Olirhant lived at Windsor near
the castle. The high, even quality of
her work is perhaps more remarkable
than her tireless industry, in view of the
fact that she worked steadily through
great sorrows bravely borne and
heavy responsibilities cheerfully ac-
copied, Which, II known, would make
her dearer than before to those who
knew her only through her books" On
the death of her son, Francis Oliphant,
in 1890, the Queen sent her a letter of
coincidence. Some of her most careful
work is to be found in the published
memoir of her remarkable kinsman,
Laurence Oliphant, to which work her
son Francis also contributed
Few women have welded the pen so
industriously as did Mrs. Oliphant Miss
Braddon may have rivaled her in the
number of volumes produced, but not in
the quality and range of work With
all this persistent labor the Scotch
woman remained vigorous, handsome
and thoroughly feminine to the end of
her days.