Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
After the death of Charlotte Brontë, the oldest and longest living of the three Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell would take her place amongst the greats of the Victorian Era novelists when she took the uncompleted works of Charlotte Brontë and compiled them into a biography of Brontë.
Elizabeth Gaskell was born on September 29th 1810 in Chelsea, just outside of the London city limits. She was the last born of 8 children, but with the exception of her oldest brother, John, the second to survive through childhood. Her mother died only three months after her birth and her father was left with no other alternative than to send Elizabeth to her aunt’s in Knutsford, Cheshire.
Her father went on to remarry and have one boy and a girl with his new wife, but very rarely ever came to visit Elizabeth at her aunt’s home. The only one who would come to visit her in her youth was her older brother John until he joined up with the East India Company's Merchant Navy.
In 1827, John, while on an expedition in India would go missing and Elizabeth was left alone with virtually nothing, living with her aunt in her grandparent’s old home in Cheshire.
Elizabeth got married early in her adult life and moved with her husband to Manchester which would often lead her into inspirational jaunts healthy enough to start her in her writing career. It was in their home in Plymouth Grove that Elizabeth Gaskell would write and publish her first novel. She would also continue to call this her home until her death almost 15 years after moving in.
At the age of 55, Elizabeth Gaskell would die in Holybourne, Hampshire. The house which was the foundation of many of her works and where she had even once met Charles Dickens would stay within the family until 1913.
Original Authors: Globel Team (Nick)
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 23/07/2008
