Julia Constance Fletcher (1853–1938) was an author and playwright who professionally went by the pseudonym of George Fleming. She was born in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1853, the daughter of James Cooley Fletcher (1823-1901) and granddaughter of the banker Calvin Fletcher. Her mother was Henriette Malan, the daughter of a Swiss clergyman. She went to Abbot Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, and was in the class of 1867. After her parents' divorce, Julia went to live with her mother in Venice. Henriette had remarried, her second husband being a painter, Eugene Benson. Julia also spent some time in London. One of the sponsors of her early novels was Alfred Sassoon, a junior member of the wealthy

Sassoon family The Sassoon family, known as "Rothschilds of the East" due to the immense wealth they accumulated in finance and trade, are a family of Baghdadi Jewish descent. Originally based in Baghdad, Iraq, they later moved to Bombay, India, and then emigr ...

and the father of Siegfried Sassoon. Alfred's infatuation with Julia was the catalyst for his desertion of his wife,

Theresa Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or re ...

. Julia's other supporters included her grandfather's friend

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and she also knew

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

, Robert Browning and

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art critic and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of the Re ...

. Two of her books, ''Kismet'' and ''Mirage'', were published as "no name novels" by

Roberts Brothers Messrs. Roberts Brothers (1857–1898) were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s. Ameri ...

in Boston. Both books deal with Americans' adventures while traveling abroad, along the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

and in Syria, respectively. ''Mirage'' has been described by Oscar Wilde scholar S. I. Salamensky, as a '' roman-á-clef'' fiction in which "a dangerously appealing, if slightly bi- or asexual, figure based on Wilde romantically pursues" a woman who is thought to represent Fletcher. In 1900 she wrote a translation/adaptation of Edmond Rostand's play ''Les Romanesques'', which she titled ''The Fantasticks''. The 1960 musical of the same name, also based on ''Les Romanesques'', borrows heavily from Fletcher's version.

Selected works

* ''A Nile Novel, or Kismet'' * ''Mirage'' (1878) * ''The truth about Clement Ker ... Told by his second cousin, Geoffrey Ker, of London'' * ''Vestigia'' * ''Andromeda: A Novel'' * ''The Head of Medusa'' (1880)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Julia Constance 1853 births 19th-century Brazilian women writers 1938 deaths Pseudonymous women writers 19th-century Brazilian writers Abbot Academy alumni 19th-century pseudonymous writers