May Agnes Fleming

May Agnes Fleming
Born May Agnes Early
(1840-11-15)November 15, 1840
Carleton, New Brunswick, British North America
Died March 24, 1880(1880-03-24) (aged 39)
Brooklyn
Resting place Calvary Cemetery, Brooklyn[1]
Pen name Cousin May Carleton; M. A. Earlie
Occupation Writer
Nationality Canadian
Genre Dime novel romance[2]
Spouse John W. Fleming
Children 4

May Agnes Fleming (November 15, 1840 – March 24, 1880) was a Canadian novelist. She was "one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction."[3]

She was born May Agnes Early[4] in Carleton, West Saint John, in the Colony of New Brunswick. She married an engineer, John W. Fleming, in 1865.[2] She moved to New York two years after her first novel, Erminie; or The gypsy's vow: a tale of love and vengeance was published there (1863).[5]

Under the pseudonym Cousin May Carleton, she published several serial tales in the New York Mercury and the New York Weekly. Twenty-one were printed in book form, seven posthumously.[6] She also wrote under the pseudonym, M.A. Earlie. The exact count is unclear, since her works were often retitled, but is estimated at around 40, although some were not actually written by her, but were attributed to her by publishers cashing in on her popularity.[7] At her peak, she was earning over $10,000 yearly, due to publishers granting her exclusive rights to her work.[8]

She died in Brooklyn, of Bright's disease.[8]

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

  1. "Fleming, May Agnes". Canada's Early Women Writers. Simon Fraser University Library (digital.lib.sfu.ca). Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  2. 1 2 "May Agnes Fleming". American Women's Dime Novel Project: Dime Novels for Women, 1870–1920. Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (chnm.gmu.edu). Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  3. May Agnes Fleming Biography - (1840–80), Mercury, Metropolitan Record, Western Recorder, Philadelphia Saturday Night, Weekly, Journal Mary Jane Edwards
  4. Cogswell, Fred. "Early, May Agnes (Fleming)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Volume X (1871–1880). (biographi.ca).
  5. Story, Norah (1968). The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 254.
  6. Wallace, W. Stewart (1963). The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography (3rd ed.). Macmillan. p. 235. LC 64-10158.
  7. "Obituary". St. John Weekly Sun. May Agnes Fleming, a native of St. John, was a very prolific writer of romances for the story papers, and a large number of her novels have been published by the cheap libraries, as well as many that are not hers, but having been written since her death, have been accredited to her in order to give them circulation.
  8. 1 2 Hovey, Joan Hall. "MAY AGNES FLEMING: 1840–1880 – Canada's First Best-Selling Novelist". Archived from the original on 2008-05-08. Retrieved 3 November 2010. Originally published in the New Brunswick Reader.
  9. Wright bibliography number 920; By Cousin May Carleton (pseud.) Reel F-8
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.