The Corvey Novels Project at the University of Nebraska
Studies in British Literature of the Romantic Period
Anna Maria Porter
Anna Maria Porter. The Lake of Killarney: a Novel
London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1804.
Biographical Sketch of Anna Maria Porter
Anna Maria Porter was a poet, a novelist and sister to Jane Porter. She
was borin in the Bailey in Durham, the posthumous child of William Porter
(1735-1779). William Porter served as an army surgeon for 23 years and is
buried in St. Oswald's church. Anna was the younger sister of Sir Robert
Ker Porter who was a painter. He created many battle paintings, one of which
is over 120 feet long. Anna was fair-haired and very pretty; she was nicknamed
L'Allegra. She was educated in Edinburgh along with her sister. By the 1790s
she had reached London and was publishing verses in the Universal Magazine.
She started her writing career at the young age of thirteen and continued
until her death in 1832, producing some two or threescore volumes, many
being translated into French. Though her sister, Jane was more popular,
Anna was the more creative. The Hungarian Brothers (1807), is a stirring
historical romance set against the French Revolutionary Wars; it was very
successful and went into several editions. Other works included The Lake
of Killarney, A Sailor's Friendship and a Soldier's Love, Don
Sebastian, The Knight of St. John, Artless Tales, and
Walsh Colville. Anna also produced the humanitarian Tales of Pity
on Fishing, Shooting and Hunting in 1814 and collaborated with her sister
on many collections of stories including Coming Out, The Field
of the Forty Footsteps, and Tales Round a Winter Hearth.
SOURCES:
http://www.bartleby.com/221/1320.html
http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/faculties/art/humanities/cns/m-porter1.html
http://www.unl.edu/Corvey/html/Projects/Corvey%20Poets/PorterAnnaMaria/BalladBio.htm
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/OC_Data/images/weblg/9/7/mw05097.jpg