Annie French Hector

Anne "Annie" French Hector (Dublin, Ireland, 1825 – London, 10 July 1902) was a 19th-century Irish popular novelist who wrote under the pen name "Mrs Alexander". It has been noted that her works "typically revolve around a young girl torn between money, family and love, often complicated by a legacy."John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Harlow: Longmans 1988). Cited in Jarndyce Booksellers' catalogue, Women Writers 1795–1927 Part I: A–F (London, Summer 2017).

Life

Born in 1825, she was the only child of Robert French, a Dublin solicitor. Her family claimed to be descended from Irish gentry, the French family of Roscommon and Lord Annaly. On the paternal side, she was related to the poet Charles Wolfe and on her mother's side, to the Shakespearian scholar, Edmond Malone.Notable Women Authors of the Day by Helen C. Black, cited at [http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/n/45307-notable-women-authors-of-the-day-by-helen-c-black?start=24]. Annie's father lost his money in 1844 and moved first to Liverpool, before settling in London.John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Harlow: Longmans 1988), cited in [http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/h/Hector_AF/life.htm].

In London, Annie French made some literary acquaintances, among them the novelists Anna Maria Hall and Eliza Lynn Linton and Household Words sub-editor W. H. Wills. She attracted attention in 1856 with an article in Household Words: "Billeted in Boulogne".Elizabeth Lee: "Hector [née French], Annie [pseud. Mrs Alexander]", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 204). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.001.0001/odnb-9780192683120-e-33797 Retrieved 4 April 2018. Pay-walled.] She married the explorer and archaeologist Alexander Hector in 1858: "...Alexander Hector married his wife, Anne, on the 15th of April 1858 and there were issue of the marriage, four children, Ida, Alexander, Annie and Mary, aged respectively, ten, eight, five and three years. In October, 1870, Mrs. Hector gave instructions to her solicitors to present a petition in the Divorce Court for a separation, on the ground of cruelty and adultery, but the matter was compromised, and on the 10th of December, 1870, a deed of separation was executed between the defendant, Alexander Hector, of first part, Anne Hector, the wife, of second part..."The Law Journal Reports for the Year 1871, Chancery, New Series, Vol. XL, Pg. 692 (Edward Bret Ince) [https://books.google.com/books?id=0PhGAQAAIAAJ]

Career

Annie wrote several novels during her early life, her first, Kate Vernon, in 1854. However, apparently her husband disapproved of her writing, and so during his lifetime she curtailed her pursuit of continuing to get her work published.New York Times obituary, 13 July 1902 [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/07/13/101276641.pdf].

After her husband's death in 1875, she used his first name as her pseudonym and completed over forty novels as "Mrs Alexander", many of them published by George and Richard Bentley.Mrs. Alexander 1825–1902 [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/womenLit/getting_into_print/Alexander_L.htm]. All her books enjoyed wide popularity in the United States, notably The Wooing O't (1873), Ralph Wilton's Weird (1875), Her Dearest Foe (1876), The Freres (1882), A Golden Autumn (1897), A Winning Hazard (1897), and Kitty Costello (1902),{{Cite Americana|wstitle= Hector, Annie French |volume= XIV |short=1 }} her final novel, which was a quasi-autobiographical work detailing a young Irish girl's move to London. Other novels of hers included The Admiral's Ward (1883), The Executor (1885), A Crooked Path (1889) and The Snare of the Fowler (1892).Jarndyce Booksellers' catalogue Women Writers 1795–1927 Part I: A–F (London, Summer 2017).Jarndyce Booksellers' catalogue XIX Century Fiction. Part 1 Part I: A–K (Bloomsbury, London, 2019).

Works

Kate Vernon (1854)
Agnes Waring: An Autobiography (1856)
The Happy Cottage: A Tale of Summer's Sunshine (1856)
Look Before you Leap (1865)
Which Shall it Be? (1866)
The Wooing O't (1873)
Ralph Wilton's Weird (1875)
The Heritage of Langdale (1877)
Her Dearest Foe (1877)
Maid, Wife or Widow?: An Episode of the '66 War (1879)
The Freres (1882)
The Admiral's Ward (1883)
The Executor (1883)
A Second Life (1885)
At Bay (1885)
Valerie's Fate (1885)
By Woman's Wit (1886)
Mona's Choice (1887)
Beaton's Bargain (1887)
A Life Interest (1888)
A Crooked Path (1889)
A False Scent (1889)
Blind Fate (1890)
Forging the Fetters (1890)
A Woman's Heart (1891)
Well Won (1891)
Mammon (1892)
For His Sake (1892)
The Snare of the Fowler (1892)
Found Wanting (1893)
A Choice of Evils (1894)
A Ward in Chancery (1894)
What Gold Cannot Buy (1895)
A Fight with Fate (1896)
A Golden Autumn (1896)
A Winning Hazard (1896)
Barbara, Lady's Maid and Peeress (1897)
Mrs. Crichton's Creditor (1897)
The Cost of Her Pride (1898)
The Step-Mother (1899)
Brown, V.C. (1899)
Through Fire to Fortune (1900)
The Yellow Fiend (1901)
A Missing Hero (1901)
Stronger than Love (1902)
Kitty Costello (1904)

References

Sources

{{cite DNB12|wstitle = Hector, Annie French|first=Elizabeth|last= Lee}}
{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33797|first1=Elizabeth|last1=Lee|title=Hector , Annie (1825–1902)|first2=C. G.|last2=Lewin|id= 33797}}

External links

[http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/n/45307-notable-women-authors-of-the-day-by-helen-c-black Notable Women Authors of the Day by Helen C. Black]
[http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/h/Hector_AF/life.htm Ricorso website for Irish literary studies devised & compiled by Bruce Stewart]
{{Internet Archive author |sname=Annie French Hector, ‘Mrs Alexander’ |sopt=t}}
{{Gutenberg author|id=8016}}

Category:1825 births

Category:1902 deaths

Category:19th-century Irish novelists

Category:19th-century Irish women writers

Category:19th-century Irish writers

Category:Victorian women writers

Category:Writers from Dublin (city)

Category:Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom

Category:Irish women novelists

Category:20th-century Irish novelists

Category:20th-century Irish women writers

Category:20th-century Irish writers