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Thank you all for your feedback on my review of Charles Auchester! In that post, I only gave brief biographical info on the author, Elizabeth Sara Sheppard, with the plan to do a deeper dive into the historical record on her later. Well, I've now done a deeper dive, and have discovered that much of what's been written about Sheppard's life, including in the introduction to the Gutenberg edition of Charles Auchester, is inaccurate or misleading.
The TL:DR is: Sheppard was born in 1826, not 1830. Her father did not die until after the publication of Charles Auchester, and she was teaching in her mother's school well before his death. While it's been claimed that she started Charles Auchester when she was 16, it seems pretty clear that she didn't write the later parts until 1847 at the earliest. Given this, it's unclear to what extent my description of the book as "teenage fanfic" is accurate -- but non-teenagers can write highly self-indulgent fic too, it's all good!
( extensive detail follows )
This is all for now, but as I enjoy historical detective-work and falling down rabbit holes, you'll probably hear more later. In fact I've just been distracted by discovering that Sheppard's father John was a subscriber (basically a Kickstarter backer) to a book of hymn arrangements by organist Theophania Cecil -- yay for historical woman composer representation!
The TL:DR is: Sheppard was born in 1826, not 1830. Her father did not die until after the publication of Charles Auchester, and she was teaching in her mother's school well before his death. While it's been claimed that she started Charles Auchester when she was 16, it seems pretty clear that she didn't write the later parts until 1847 at the earliest. Given this, it's unclear to what extent my description of the book as "teenage fanfic" is accurate -- but non-teenagers can write highly self-indulgent fic too, it's all good!
( extensive detail follows )
This is all for now, but as I enjoy historical detective-work and falling down rabbit holes, you'll probably hear more later. In fact I've just been distracted by discovering that Sheppard's father John was a subscriber (basically a Kickstarter backer) to a book of hymn arrangements by organist Theophania Cecil -- yay for historical woman composer representation!