Born, 1831. Began to contribute to periodicals, 1853. Hon. Sec. and Vice-Pres. of Egypt Exploration Fund. Hon. L.H.D. Degree, Columbia Coll., New York, 1887. Lectured in United States, 188990. Died, 15 April 1892. Works: My Brothers Wife, 1855; A Summary of English History, 1856; The Ladder of Life, 1857; The Young Marquis [1857]; Hand and Glove, 1858; The History of France, 1858; Letterpress to The Photographic Historical Portrait Gallery, 1860; Sights and Stories, 1862; The Story of Cervantes, 1863 [1862]; Barbaras History, 1864 [1863]; Ballads, 1865; Miss Carew, 1865; Half a Million of Money, 1865; Poems in Home Thoughts and Home Scenes, 1865; Debenhams Vow, 1870; Untrodden Peaks, 1873; In the Days of my Youth, 1873; Monsieur Maurice, 1873; A Thousand Miles up the Nile, 1877 [1870]; A Poetry-Book of Elder Poets, 1879; A Poetry-Book of Modern Poets, 1879; Lord Brackenbury, 1880; Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers, 1891. She translated: Loviots A Ladys Captivity among the Chinese Pirates, [1858]; Masperos Egyptian Archæology, 1887.
Personal
Summer or winter, in rain or sun or snow, Miss Edwards does her half-mile before and half-mile after breakfast, previous to beginning work, touching an index dial at the bottom of the path to make sure of her record. When tired at her desk she also takes a few turns. After luncheon, in the afternoon, a carriage drive of a couple of hours and an incidental walk give further recreation, and at dinner-time she repeats the morning walk. Otherwise than this she works all the time, forenoon, afternoon, and evening, giving to the cause of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, of which she is the founder and one of the honorary secretaries, in the writing of letters and articles, time and work worth some hundreds of pounds a year. In starting a novel, which she never expects to complete under two years, Miss Edwards maps out an elaborate plot, chapter by chapter, most conscientiously. Then she begins to write, and writes something entirely different. A new plot is evolved out of the débris of the old in a few brief memoranda, and this serves. She never describes scenery nor buildings which she has not seen and studied, though her interiors are furnished by the imagination to suit the situation. Thus a special visit to Cheshire laid the ground for Lord Brackenbury, and some of the illustrations for it were redrawn from her own sketches
. Miss Edwards, with her strong, keen, fine face, is a fitting type for the woman scholar, a scholar made by hard study, but a writer born, since she wrote her first novel before she could write, when four years old, printing the letters and making pictures; printed a long poem at eleven; and at twelve wrote an elaborate historical novel, which was published serially in a London penny weekly.
As a woman she is simple and earnest in her manner; free from anything like affectation, cordial and kind, and entertaining to the point of fascination. All this she carries into her lectures, and a fresh charm is given by her voice, which is music itself. It is not hard, nor is it pitched high, but it is beautifully clear, and has a carrying quality, which makes it possible for every one in her audience to hear distinctly any word she utters. She speaks with deliberation, but without the suggestion of slowness . In personal appearance Miss Edwards is a tall, fine-looking woman, with silvery hair brushed straight back from her forehead, kindly gray eyes, a fresh complexion, and a clear-cut, very expressive mouth. She has a most genial, winning, and cordial manner, and is a charming conversationalist.
With regard to my manners and customs and the course of my daily life, there is little or nothing to tell, I am essentially a worker, and a hard worker, and this I have been since my early girlhood. When I am asked what are my working hours, I reply:All the time when I am not either sitting at meals, taking exercise, or sleeping; and this is literally true. I live with the pen in my hand, not only from morning till night, but sometimes from night till morning. I have, in fact, been a night bird ever since I came out of the school-room, when I habitually sat up reading till long past midnight. Later on, when I adopted literature as a profession, I still found that To steal a few hours from the night was to ensure the quietest time, and the pleasantest, for pen and brain work; and, for at least the last twenty-five years, I have rarely put out my lamp before two or three in the morning. Occasionally, when work presses and a manuscript has to be despatched by the earliest morning mail, I remain at my desk the whole night through; and I can with certainty say that the last chapter of every book I have ever written has been finished at early morning. In summer-time, it is certainly delightful to draw up the blinds and complete in sunlight a task begun when the lamps were lighted in the evening.
So long as she lived Miss Edwards devoted herself to the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund, abandoning all her other literary interests. As it was her contagious enthusiasm that originally brought the members together, so it was her genius for organization that smoothed over difficulties and insured success. With her own hand she wrote innumerable letters, acknowledging receipt of subscriptions, and labelled the objects presented to museums. During this period she regularly contributed articles on Egyptological subjects to the Times and the Academy, as well as to other journals at home and abroad.
General
A Thousand Miles up the Nile is far from being a mere book of travel, though it is enlivened with the incidental narratives and picturesque descriptions customary in such a volume
. The style of the whole book is marked by precision and sustained vigour
. All the attractive and popular qualities which I have enumerated are placed by the author at the service of a strong and ardent passion for Egyptian archæology
. It is this enthusiasm for old Egypt, running, powerful and deep, throughout the volume, as an undercurrent to its many other interests, that gives its real charm to the work.
The name of Amelia B. Edwards is one that is familiar as an admirable writer of fiction; it also represents a lady with whom I can boast of an acquaintance, though some years have passed since we met. I have derived so much pleasure from that ladys books that I should be ungrateful if I did not place the writer prominently among the people I have known. I venture to recommend Miss Edwards novel called Barbaras History to any one who doubts the authoresss right to be placed very high in the ranks of novelists. A reading of that book will dispel any such doubts.
On Feb. 13 Mr. Lowell added to his formal signature these words: Dear Dr. Winslow: I have great pleasure in signing the above document. What he signed reads: The proposed visit of Miss Amelia B. Edwards to the United States to see our Country and to lecture upon subjects in which she is an acknowledged authority, if carried into effect, will be an event of special interest to the intelligent and cultivated people of our land. She may be assured of a hearty welcome, and her lectures cannot fail to prove of rare profit and pleasure to her audiences. I am sure that Miss Edwards will now yield to the desire of her heart to see a people that she loves so well as the Americans. I imagine she will come when next the maples are all aglow, which will recall to her the after-glow on the Nile, and so be ready to begin to lecture on Egypt in November. Already some of our choicest rostrums, in institutes and universities have been placed at her disposal. I note that the English and Scotch press refer, in most appreciative terms, to her lectures in great cities and university centres, before crowded and enthusiastic audiences . We shall be glad, too, to hear Miss Edwards on fiction, music and art (apart from Egypt), in which she is a foremost critic of the day.
No other novel [Barbaras History] has ever been to me quite what this was. Charles Auchester and a sweet English story, St. Olaves, came the nearest to sharing my regard with it, but, much as I liked these books, they were not the first in my regard. That place of honor was given to Barbaras History. It is in her works of travels that Miss Edwards is at her best. She brings such a spirit of enthusiastic enjoyment to this work that she fascinates her readers and holds them spellbound by the beauty of her description and the rich results of her research. Many of her books are illustrated by herself, and a story told of her when she was a girl of fourteen is of decided interest, as showing the many-sidedness of her genius. At this time she sent a short story to The Omnibus, a periodical edited by the celebrated caricaturist, the late George Cruikshank. On the back of her manuscript she had drawn caricatures of her principal characters, which showed a cleverness that so delighted the great humorist that he called at once to see his unknown contributor. Fancy his surprise on being presented to a child. Recovering from his astonishment he offered to train her in his special work, but she declined his offer. Later on, for her own satisfaction, and as a recreation from her literary work, she studied art under the best masters. The advantage of this training she has reaped in being able to make her own illustrations for her books.
I shall not attempt to write a biography of the eminent English woman who has just passed away, but must limit myself to an endeavour to record her services to learning. Therefore I pass by the early musical training of Miss Edwards, her skill as a landscape artist, and the long series of novels which gave her a name before Egyptology made her famous. I begin with the year 1883, when at the age of fifty-two she began her lifes work, and joined Sir Erasmus Wilson in founding the Egypt Exploration Fund. This great enterprise, with which her name is by desert indissolubly linked, was the outcome of Mariettes so-called archæological will. It took shape after a visit to Egypt described in A Thousand Miles up the Nile, which excited in a highly-imaginative mind an undying interest in the monuments . To Miss Edwards is due the success of the Fund. On her fell the duty of maintaining the subscriptions to the Fund in England, and of corresponding with the explorers and editing the Memoirsa labour on which she spared no pains, and made many lasting friends and not a single enemy. This was not due to diplomacy, but to a keen sympathy with the workers, and a full appreciation of their hardships.
Her work in the field of fiction has stood the test of time, her merits as an Egyptologist are now universally acknowledgedit is pleasant to know that the cordial recognition of the Athenæum a few weeks ago was one of the last things read to her . Although English literature was from childhood to middle life her absorbing study and pursuit, music in early years had taken such hold of her that at one time it seemed as if Amelia B. Edwards would rather distinguish herself in that field than authorship . For drawing also she possessed marked talent, though I am unaware that she ever received a drawing lesson in her life. Indeed, excepting in the matter of music, few distinguished persons have been less indebted to teachers; she always said that she could teach herself anything better than others could teach her, and as an Egyptologist she was entirely self-taught . A happy chance led her into the field of her latest and most brilliant successes. It was quite by accident that she visited Egypt some years since, the results of her journey being now well before the world. No need here to dwell on her exertions as honorary secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund, or her numerous contributions to Egyptian archæology. As was lately pointed out in the columns of the Athenæum, she is the first lady who has attained distinction as an Egyptologist.
Miss Edwards knew Egypt personally, and its history completely; she mastered the literature of research and exploration, and caught the freshest news of every discovery; she was profoundly interested in whatever cast light on philological and ethnical questions, or that related to the arts or sciences of contemporaneous nations, and withal she had a fair or respectable knowledge of the hieroglyphic text. Her talents, tastes, previous training, studies in her adopted profession, eminently qualified her for the post of honorary secretary of the society which she, with Sir E. Wilson and Prof. R. Stuart Poole founded in 1883. Nay, was she not born to be an Egyptologist? Miss Edwards was the best delineator that Old Egypt has ever had. The Saturday Review thinks no other writer did so much to render Egypt popular . Hers was pre-eminently the rôle of interpreter (April 23). Her lectures to American audiences, in their substance and expressions, most happily establish my claim . Miss Edwardss genius belongs to the objective rather than the subjective school; and she assiduously cultivated her powers and tastes in the direction of objects rather than subjects of thought, or, if the latter, from without rather than within. She splendidly illustrated what it is to see and think through the eye rather than through pure reason. I do not know indeed that she ever read Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Hamilton; and although she could aptly quote The immortal Dogberry and other Shakespearean characters, yet I think she enjoyed the wit more than the human philosophy of Shakespeare. She was searching, investigating, logical for a woman in her deductions (witness her treatment of the Ka question), but she lacked at least in her novels, that imperial philosophic element, that subjective insight and genius of creation which permeates and sways the Daniel Derondas that are given the world. Lord Brackenbury, so full of life, light, color, and abounding in suggestions to the imagination and eye, typifies, I think, the objective novel as distinctively as Middlemarch represents the subjective novel of our day. This may explain why some people fail to appreciate Miss Edwardss novels who praise her as an archæologist.
In Barbaras History, in Lord Brackenbury, and in other stories by Miss Edwards, there are beautiful and graphic descriptions of foreign scenery, and we meet plenty of foreign people; but we feel that the latter are described by an English woman who has taken an immense amount of pains to make herself acquainted with their ways and their speechthey somewhat lack spontaneity. In the two novels named there are chapters so full of local history and association that one thinks it might be well to have the books for companions when visiting the places described; they are full of talentin some places near akin to genius.