Grace Jane Wallace

Grace Jane Wallace, Lady Wallace was a Scottish author.

Early life

Grace Jane Stein was born in 1804 as the eldest daughter of John Stein, an Edinburgh banker and distiller who served as MP for Bletchingley.

Career

Lady Wallace "built a career and reputation for herself through her work as a translator, in particular with her translations of the lives and letters of contemporary musicians for Longman's, which remained the standard English versions for generations."

Personal life

On 19 August 1824, she married, as his second wife, Sir Alexander Don, 6th Baronet of Newton Don, who was a close friend of Sir Walter Scott. Before his death on11 March 1826, they were the parents of two children:

Sir William Henry Don, 7th Baronet, the actor who married twice.
Alexina Harriet Don, who married Sir Frederick Acclom Milbank, 1st Baronet, a grandson of the 1st Duke of Cleveland.

In his Familiar Letters Sir Walter Scott writes to his son in 1825: "Mama and Anne are quite well; they are with me on a visit to Sir Alex. Don and his new lady, who is a very pleasant woman, and plays on the harp delightfully".
After Sir Alexander died in 1826; Grace married Lt.-Gen. Sir James Maxwell Wallace in 1836. Lady Wallace died on 12 March 1878 without children from her second marriage.

Works

Lady Wallace long and actively pursued a career as a translator of German and Spanish works, among others:The Princess Ilse, 1855Clara; or Slave-life in Europe, 1856Voices from the Greenwood, 1856The Old Monastery, 1857Frederick the Great and his Merchant, 1859Schiller's Life and Works, 1859The Castle and the Cottage in Spain, 1861Joseph in the Snow, 1861Mendelssohn's Letters from Italy and Switzerland, 1862Will-o'-the-Wisp, 1862Letters of Mendelssohn from 1833 to 1847, 1863Letters of Mozart, 1865Beethoven's Letters, 1790–1826, 1866Letters of Distinguished Musicians, 1867Reminiscences of Mendelssohn, 1868Alexandra Feodorowna, 1870A German Peasant Romance: Elsa and the Vulture, 1876Life of Mozart, 1877.