Oliphant, Margaret (1828-1897)

Scottish writer. The author of 98 novels, 25 nonfictional works, 50 short stories, and 300 articles, she was one of the first women writers to live entirely by writing, which she did while bringing up her children and other dependants unaided, following her husband's death. Her major novels are the series The Chronicles of Carlingford (1863-66) (including The Perpetual Curate, 1864, and Miss Marjoribanks, 1866) and Effie Ogilvie (1886).

She wrote her first fiction at 17, while nursing her sick mother, and had her first novel published at 21 (Passages in the Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland 1849).

She was born in Wallyford, near Edinburgh. Her early novels include Caleb Field and Merkland (both 1851); the latter was so successful that, on moving to London 1852, she was invited to write for Blackwood's Magazine, to which she contributed over 200 stories and articles during her long association with the magazine. Her other novels include Katie Stewart (1853), Quiet Heart (1854), Zaidee (1856), and The Athelings (1857). She also wrote biographies of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1883), Edward Irving (1886), and Laurence Oliphant (no relation) (1891). The fullest edition of her autobiography was published in 1990.