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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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MRS HENRY WOOD [ELLEN] (1814-1887), English novelist, was born at Worcester on the 17th of January 1814. Her maiden name was Price; her father was a glove manufacturer in Worcester. She married Henry Wood in 1836, and after her marriage lived for the most part in France, her husband, who died in 1866, being at the head of a large shipping and banking firm. In 1860 she wrote a temperance tale, Danesbury House, which gained a prize of boo offered by the Scottish Temperance League; but before this she had regularly contributed anonymous stories to periodicals. Her first great success was made with East Lynne (1861), which obtained enormous popularity. It was translated into several languages, and a number of dramatic versions were made. The Channings and Mrs Halliburton's Troubles followed in 1862; Verner's Pride and The Shadow of Ashlydyat in 1863; Lord Oakburn's Daughters, Oswald Cray and Trevlyn Hold in 1864. She became proprietor and editor of the Argosy magazine in 1867, and the Johnny Ludlow tales, published anonymously there, are the most artistic of her works. Among the thirty-five novels Mrs Henry Wood produced, the best of those not hitherto mentioned were Roland Yorke (1869); Within the Maze (1872) and Edina (1876). She continued to edit the Argosy, with the assistance of her son, Mr C. W. Wood, till her death, which occurred on the 10th of February 1887.

Memorials of Mrs Henry Wood, by her son, were published in 1894.