======================================================================
= Amelia_Edwards =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards (7 June 1831 - 15 April 1892), also known
as Amelia B. Edwards, was an English novelist, journalist, traveller
and Egyptologist. Her literary successes included the ghost story 'The
Phantom Coach' (1864), the novels 'Barbara's History' (1864) and 'Lord
Brackenbury' (1880), and the travelogue of Egypt 'A Thousand Miles up
the Nile' (1877). She also edited a poetry anthology published in
1878.
In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund. She gained the
nickname "Godmother of Egyptology" for her contribution.
Early life
======================================================================
Born on 7 June 1831 in Islington, London, to an Irish mother and a
father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker,
Edwards was educated at home by her mother and showed early promise as
a writer. She published her first poem at the age of seven and her
first story at the age of twelve. Thereafter came a variety of poetry,
stories and articles in several periodicals, including 'Chambers's
Journal', 'Household Words' and 'All the Year Round'. She also wrote
for the 'Saturday Review' and the 'Morning Post'.
In addition, Edwards became an artist. She would illustrate some of
her own writings and also paint scenes from other books she had read.
She was talented enough at the age of 12 to catch the eye of George
Cruikshank, who went so far as to offer to teach her, but this talent
of hers was not supported by Edwards's parents, who saw art as a
lesser profession and the artist's way of life as scandalous. Their
negative decision haunted Edwards through her early life. She would
wonder frequently whether art would not have been her true calling.
Thirdly, Edwards took up composing and performing music for some
years, until she suffered a bout of typhus in 1849 that was followed
by a frequently sore throat. This made it hard for her to sing,
causing her to lose interest in music and even regret the time she had
spent on opera. Other interests she pursued included pistol shooting,
riding and mathematics.
Fiction
======================================================================
Early in the 1850s, Edwards began to focus more exclusively on being a
writer. Her first full-length novel was 'My Brother's Wife' (1855).
Her early novels were well received, but it was 'Barbara's History'
(1864), a novel involving bigamy, that established her reputation. She
spent much time and effort on the settings and backgrounds of her
books, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the
research and writing of each. This paid off when her last novel, 'Lord
Brackenbury' (1880), went into several editions.
Edwards wrote several ghost stories, including "The Phantom Coach"
(1864), which frequently appears in anthologies. The background and
characters in many of her writings are influenced by personal
experiences. For example, 'Barbara's History' (1864) uses Suffolk as
the background, which she had visited for a few enjoyable summer
holidays as a child.
Personal life
======================================================================
In January 1851, Amelia Edwards became engaged to a Mr Bacon (first
name unknown), possibly out of consideration for her ageing parents,
who may have been worried for their daughter's future economic
security. There are no signs that point to a love relationship; on the
contrary, Edwards does not seem to have felt any particular sympathies
for her fiancé. In December 1851, she broke off the engagement.
Amelia Edwards formed emotional attachments almost exclusively with
women. From the early 1860s onwards, she lived with Ellen Drew
Braysher (1804-1892, see below), a widow 27 years her senior who had
lost her husband and daughter not long after Edwards' parents had died
and was to become her companion until both women died in early 1892.
Another significant person in Edwards' life was Ellen Byrne, the wife
of a pastor and school inspector, with whom Edwards apparently entered
a love relationship during the second half of the 1860s. The
relationship ended when the husband, John Rice Byrne, was assigned a
different school district and the couple moved away, which left
Edwards deeply distraught.
Edwards' papers, archived at Somerville College, contain no reference
to the intimate quality of this relationship, but a letter from writer
and early homosexual activist John Addington Symonds to sexologist
Havelock Ellis reveals that Edwards had mentioned it to Symonds after
the two had become friends around 1864. According to Symonds, John
Rice Byrne was aware of the nature of his wife's feelings for Edwards
and condoned the relationship. Ellis anonymized this information and
used it in his publication 'Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2'
as an example of what he termed "sexual inversion".
Edwards further maintained important, close friendships with painter
Marianne North (1830-1890), her travelling companion Lucy Renshaw
(1833-1919) and her closest confidante during her later years, Kate
Bradbury (later Griffith), who also became executrix of Edwards' will.
Dolomites
======================================================================
Edwards first heard about the Dolomites in 1853, through sketches
brought back to England from Italy. On 27 June 1872, she embarked on a
trip through the mountains with her friend Lucy Renshaw. That day they
left Monte Generoso for Venice, one of the three known ways to enter
the Dolomites, but not before parting from Renshaw's maid and
courtier, who disapproved of such a journey.
Instead the two women hired mountain guides from the region. On 1 July
1872, after a three-day stay in Venice, Edwards and Renshaw left for
Longarone, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Pieve di Cadore, Auronzo di Cadore, Val
Buona, Caprile, Agordo, Primiero, Predazzo, Fassa Valley, Passo
Fedaia, Sasso Bianco, Forno di Zoldo, Zoppè di Cadore and Caprile, and
ended their journey in Bolzano.
At the time of Edwards's visit, the Dolomites were described as terra
incognita and even educated persons had never heard of them. This
journey was described in her book 'A Midsummer Ramble in the
Dolomites' (1873), later entitled 'Untrodden Peaks and Infrequent
Valleys'. During the expedition, Edwards also sought works of Titian,
finding a Madonna and Child in Serravalle (Vittorio Veneto) and two
other paintings at a village church in Cadore.
After her descent from the mountains, Edwards described civilized life
as a "dead-level World of Commonplace". In the summer of 1873,
dissatisfied by the end of their journey, Edwards and Renshawe took to
a walking tour of France. However, this was interrupted by torrential
rains, a factor that influenced them in looking towards Egypt.
Egypt
======================================================================
Edwards, again accompanied by Lucy Renshaw, toured Egypt in the winter
of 1873-1874, experiencing a fascination with the land and its
cultures, ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a
hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the two women visited Philae and
ultimately reached Abu Simbel, where they remained for six weeks.
Another party member was the English painter Andrew McCallum, who
discovered a sanctuary that came to bear his name for some time
afterwards. Their boat joined a flotilla with another female English
traveller, Marianne Brocklehurst, also travelling with a female
companion. Brocklehurst and Edwards remained friends and Brocklehurst
later supported her Egypt Exploration Fund.
Edwards wrote a successful, self-illustrated description of her Nile
voyage entitled 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile' (1877). Her travels in
Egypt made her aware of increasing threats to ancient monuments from
tourism and modern development. She set out to hinder these through
public awareness and scientific endeavour, becoming an advocate for
research and preservation of them. In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt
Exploration Fund with Reginald Stuart Poole, Curator of the Department
of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards became joint
Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death.
To advance the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned other writing in
favour of Egyptology. She contributed to the 9th edition of the
'Encyclopædia Britannica', to the American supplement of that and to
the 'Standard Dictionary'. In addition, Edwards took on an strenuous
lecture tour in the United States in 1889-1890. The lectures later
appeared as 'Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers'.
Death and legacy
======================================================================
After catching influenza, Edwards died on 15 April 1892 at
Weston-super-Mare, having lived at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol,
since 1864. She was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin,
Henbury, Bristol, where her grave is marked by an obelisk with a stone
ankh at the foot. Alongside are the graves of her life partner of 30
years, Ellen Drew Braysher (9 April 1804 - 9 January 1892), with whom
she had lived in Westbury-on-Trym and of Ellen's daughter, Sarah
Harriet Braysher (1832-1864). In September 2016, Historic England
designated the grave Grade II listed, as a landmark in English LGBT
history.
Edwards bequeathed her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her
library to University College London, with a sum of £2,500 to found an
Edwards Chair of Egyptology which had a huge influence on developing
egyptology as a discipline. Her dedication to this science earned her
the nickname of "the Godmother of Egyptology". Edwards also supported
Somerville College Library, having left many books, papers and
watercolours to Somerville College, Oxford, along with a small
collection of Greek and Roman pots.
In popular culture
======================================================================
*In 2012, Edwards was portrayed as a non-singing character in Stephen
Medcalf's production of 'Aida' at London's Royal Albert Hall. The
opera opens with a Victorian "dig" among Egyptian tombs and the action
unfolds as Edwards imagines the plot taking place based on her
exploration of the site. The libretto was based on a scenario by the
Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, a contemporary of Edwards.
*The Egyptologist and novelist Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz) named
her character Amelia Peabody after Amelia Edwards.
*In 2014, a new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, staged a
music-theatre piece, 'I Was Here I Was I', based on Amelia Edwards's
'A Thousand Miles Up the Nile', at the Temple of Dendur in the
Metropolitan Museum of Arts' Sackler Wing. It was written and directed
by Nigel Maister to music by Kate Soper.
*A one-woman show based on Edwards's life, 'Hers Was the Earth', by
Kim Hicks, was performed at the Petrie Museum during the 2011
International Women's Day observances.
*Edwards' short story "Was It an Illusion?" (1881), about a Schools
Inspector who has an unsettling encounter on his visit to the north of
England, features in Audible's 2017 Ghostly Tales anthology, narrated
by Simon Callow.
History and archaeology
=========================
*'A Summary of English History: from the Roman Conquest to the present
time', 1856
*'Outlines of English history: from the Roman conquest to the present
time: with observations on the progress of art, science and
civilization and questions adapted to each paragraph: for the use of
schools', c. 1857
*'The History of France; from the Conquest of Gaul by the Romans to
the Peace of 1856', 1858
*'The Story of Cervantes, etc.', 1862
*'A Thousand Miles Up the Nile' London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd,
1877 (1st edition) and 1888 (2nd edition, )
*'Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers'. New York: Harper & Brothers,
1891
Novels
========
*'My Brother's Wife. A Life-History', 1855
*'The Ladder of Life. A Heart history', 1857
*'The Young Marquis, or, A Story from a Reign', c. 1857
*'The Eleventh of March. (From a pocket-book of forty years ago)',
1863
*'No Hero: An Autobiography', 1863
*'Barbara's History', 1864
*'Hand and Glove. A Novel', 1865
*'Half a Million of Money', c. 1868
*'Debenham's Vow', 1870
*'In the Days of My Youth', 1873
*'Lord Brackenbury', 1880
Short fiction
===============
*'Miss Carew' (collection), 1865
*'Monsieur Maurice and Other Stories', 1873
**"Monsieur Maurice"
**"An Engineer's Story"
**"The Cabaret of the Break of Day"
**"The Story of Ernst Christian Schoeffer"
**"The New Pass"
**"A Service of Danger"
**"A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest"
**"The Story of Salome"
**"In the Confessional"
**"The Tragedy in the Palazzo Bardell"
**"The Four Fifteen Express"
**"Sister Johanna's Story"
**"All Saints' Eve"
*'The Phantom Coach', by Amelia B. Edwards, adapted by I. M.
Richardson, illustrated by Hal Ashmead, c. 1982
Poetry
========
*'Ballads'. London: Tinsley, 1865
*'A Poetry-book of Elder Poets, consisting of songs & sonnets,
odes & lyrics, selected and arranged, with notes, from the works
of the elder English poets, dating from the beginning of the
fourteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century'. 1878
Translations
==============
*'Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities
in Egypt: for the use of students and travellers' by Sir G. Maspero,
translated by Amelia B. Edwards
Travel
========
*'Sights and Stories: Being Some Account of a Holiday Tour Through the
North of Belgium', 1862
*'A Thousand Miles up the Nile', 1877
*'Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: A Midsummer Ramble in the
Dolomites'. London: Longman's, Green and Co., 1873
Source:
[
http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?srt=date2&srtChange=true&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&ct=suggestedSearch&vl(2084770705UI1)=all_items&tab=local_tab&fn=search&indx=1&dscnt=0&vl(freeText0)=Edwards%2C%20Amelia%20Ann%20Blanford%2C%201831-1892.&vl(2084770704UI0)=creator&scp.scps=scope%3A(BLCONTENT)&dstmp=1591301531141
Catalogue of the British Library]
See also
======================================================================
*Mary Brodrick
Biographies
======================================================================
*Carl Graves, (2025). 'Amelia B. Edwards: The ´Queen of Egyptology.´'
London: The Egypt Exploration Society.
*Deborah Manley, (2015). 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'
entry.
*
*
*
*
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Edwards
