Charlotte O'Conor Eccles (1863–1911) was an Irish writer, translator and journalist, who spent her working life in London. ''Aliens of the West'' (1904) was said to be among "the best modern books of short stories on Ireland yet written."''The Times'' (London, England), Thursday, 15 June 1911; p. 11; Issue 39612.

Life

Charlotte O'Conor Eccles was born in

County Roscommon "Steadfast Irish heart" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Roscommon.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Connacht , subdi ...

, Ireland, on 1 November 1863, the fourth daughter of Alexander O'Conor Eccles of Ballingard House, the founder of a home-rule newspaper, ''The Roscommon Messenger''. She attended a Catholic grammar school, Upton Hall School FCJ, near Birkenhead and convents in Paris and Germany.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day'' (London: Batsford, 1990), pp. 326–327.

Writings

Eccles later lived in London with her mother and sister, where after a number of setbacks she became a journalist in the London office of the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

''. She went on to become a staff member of the ''Daily Chronicle'' and the ''Star''.RIA/''Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography'' (2009) Vol. III, p. 568. She commented in an article in the June 1893 number of '' Blackwood's Magazine'' on "the immense difficulty a woman finds in getting into an office in any recognised capacity". Eccles joined the agricultural reformer Sir Horace Plunkett in writing and lecturing around Ireland for the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Another of her ''Blackwood's Magazine'' articles, in December 1888, covered "Irish Housekeeping and Irish Customs in the Last Century". Her first novel, ''The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore'' (London: Jarrold & Sons, 1897), was published in 1897 under the male pseudonym Hal Godfrey: "This hilarious novel tells of a middle-aged woman who drinks too much of an elixir of youth, causing pandemonium in the... boarding-house where she lives with her sister." She also contributed to a number of periodicals, including the '' Irish Monthly'', the '' Pall Mall Magazine'', the ''

American Ecclesiastical Review The ''American Ecclesiastical Review'' was the first American Roman Catholic journal dedicated to theological scholarship. History The journal was established in 1889 and published in Philadelphia until 1927. It was then housed at the Catholic ...

'' and the ''

Windsor Magazine ''The Windsor Magazine'' was a monthly illustrated publication produced by Ward Lock & Co from January 1895 to September 1939 (537 issues). The title page described it as "An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women". It was bound as six-monthly ...

''. Eccles's other books include ''Aliens of the West'' (London: Cassell, 1904) and ''The Matrimonial Lottery'' (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1906). An obituary in ''The Times'' described ''Aliens of the West'' as "one of the best modern books of short stories on Ireland yet written".

Death

Eccles died in 1911 at her home in

St John's Wood, London St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the Civil Parish#Ancient Parishes, ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of St Maryleb ...

of cerebral thrombosis after a reported nervous breakdown.Orlando site. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eccles, Charlotte O'Conor 1860 births 1911 deaths 19th-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish novelists Irish women novelists Pseudonymous women writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers People from County Roscommon