Mary Catherine Rowsell

Mary Catherine Rowsell was an English novelist, author of children's fiction, and dramatist. Her education in Belgium and Germany resulted in books based on German folk tales, and on French historical figures. Most of her children's books were set around well-known historical events.

Early life

Rowsell was born on 29 December 1839 and baptised in St. Dionis Backchurch on 22 January 1840. Her father was Charles John Rowsell, an accountant who may have patented the Graphoscope
and certainly patented improvements to it. Her mother was Sarah Lewis, and her parents were married on 6 June 1829, in St. Nicholas, Brighton, Sussex, England. Her uncle was the popular preacher Thomas James Rowsell, and her aunt Sarah Rowsell was married to the architect Sir Charles Barry.
Rowsell was educated at Queen's College, London in Harley Street, and later in Brussels and Bonn. This enabled her to write books based on German folk-tales and on people from French history.

Work

Rowsell produced four types of works: books for children, novels for adults, plays, and shorter fiction.
Rowsell's first book was published in her mid twenties, under her initials, "M. C. R.". This was a translation of Rosalie Koch's collection of forty fairy tales, Rübezahl: Berggeist im Riesengebirge. The first edition of the book was well received, and another edition was issued for the Christmas gift-book market. In advertising the Christmas edition, the publishers quoted the press reviews of the first edition:

"A charmingly written little volume. The illustrations are very good." – Spectator
"The tales are no less instructive than entertaining." – Observer
"A good book to put into the hands of young persons." – Press
"Will be found amusing by young people." – Dispatch
"A most capital series of fairy tales, illustrated by many well-executed engravings." – Army and Navy Gazette
"The present collection of tales is the best we have seen." – Sunday Times
"Equals in interest the Arabian Nights." – Bayswater Chronicle
"To our young friends we commend the Spirit of the Giant Mountains." – Illustrated News of the World

Despite this initial success Rowsell had no further work published until Abbots' Crag in July 1872. On this occasion the author was identified as M. C. Rowsell.

List of longer works

The following list is based on searches on the Jisc Library Hub Discover, which collates the catalogues of 162 national, academic, and specialist libraries in the UK and Ireland. The online availability of texts is indicated for the following repositories:

BL – The British Library
IA – The Internet Archive
HT – Hathi Trust
FL – Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida

Serial	Year	Title	Pages	Publisher	BL	IA	HT	FL	Notes
1	1864	The Spirit of the Giant Mountains: A Series of Fairy Tales	231 p., 9 pl., 8º	London: Murray & Co
2	1872	Abbots' Crag: A Tale	168 p., 8º	London: Whittaker
3	1874	Plays for Home Performance: Thornrose and Sparkledor; Riquet with the Tuft	63 p., 8º	London: Samuel French
4	1876	Saint Nicolas' Eve, and Other Tales	256 p., 8º	London: Samuel Tinsley
5	1878	Love Loyal	3 v., 8º	London: Hurst & Blackett
6	1880	Jeannette	3 v., 8º	London: Hurst & Blackett
7	1882	Hymns and Narrative Verses for Children	30 p., 16º	London: J. T. Hayes
8	1883	Tales of Filial Devotion: Examples of the Faithful Heroism of Girls, Drawn from French History	198 p., 8º	London: Sonnenschein & Co
9	1884	Number Nip; or, the Spirit of the Giant Mountains	286 p., 8º	London: Sonnenschein & Co
10	1884	Traitor or Patriot? A Tale of the Rye-House Plot	vi, 287, fs., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
11	1885	The Pedlar and his Dog	160 p. : ill., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
12	1885	Miss Vanbrugh: A Stage Story	158, p., 12º	Bristol: G. W. Arrowsmith
13	1886	Fisherman Grim	96 p., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
14	1886	Sepperl the Drummer-Boy	95 p., fs., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
15	1886	The Silver Dial	3 v., 8º	London: Swan Sonnenschein
16	1887	Hans the Painter	96 p., fs., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
17	1887	Hatto's Tower and Other Stories	127 p., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
18	1888	The Red House	176 p., 8º	London: Hamilton, Adams & Co
19	1889	John a' Dale; or, The King and the Tinker	128 p., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
20	1889	Whips of Steel
21	1890	The Story of a Queen	159 p., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
22	1890	Thorndyke Manor	287 p., 8º	London: Blackie & Son
23	1891	Petronella; and Madame Ponowski	107 p., fs., 8º	London: Skeffington & Son
24	1892	Richard's Play: A Comedietta, in One Act	16 p., 8º	London: Samuel French
25	1894	The Friend of the People	3 v., 8º	London: T. F. Unwin
26	1896	The Green Men of Norwell, and Other Stories	87 p., 8º	London: Simpkin & Marshall
27	1897	France: The Children's Study	362 p., fs., 8º	London: T. Fisher Unwin
28	1898	The Boys of Fairmead	319 p., 8º	London: F. Warne & Co
29	1899	Honour Bright	48 p., 8º	London: E. Nister
30	1900	Dick of Temple Bar	127 p., ill.	London: E. Nister
31	1902	The Last Link		London: Samuel French
32	1903	My Lady's Favour, a Comedy by M. C. Rowsell and E. G. Howell		London: Samuel French
33	1905	The Life-Story of Charlotte de la Trémoille: Countess of Derby	viii, 188 p., ill., 8º	London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner
34	1905	The Wild Swans, or, The Adventure of Roland Cleeve	128, 32 p., ill., 8º	London: S. W. Partridge & Co
35	1907	Monsieur de Paris: a Romance	306 p.	London: Chatto & Windus
36	1910	Ninon de L'Enclos and Her Century	ix, 310 p., 2 pl., 8º	London: Hurst & Blackett
37	1920	The Sea-King's Son and Fisherman Grim	78 p., 8º	London: Blackie & Son

Serials and shorter works

Rowsell edited the short lived St. Paul's Magazine in 1889. This should not be confused with Saint Paul's, a monthly magazine edited by Anthony Trollope which ran for 14 volumes from 1867 – 1874. Rowsell contributed, with James Macdonald Oxley and John Alexander Hammerton to The Children's Friend: a Magazine for Boys and Girls at Home and School in 1902 and 1903.
Several of Rowell's published novels were serialised, but she also published shorter fiction and serial stories including:

"The Secret of the Ivory Room", a longer short story. Appeared in the Adelaide Observer in 1906.
"Uncle Will's Wager", a short story. Appeared in the Otago Witness, New Zealand in 1912.
"The Heir of Willowcote": A serial story in which a baby is rescued from destruction by a midwife and spirited away from a country house. It appeared in the Ottawa Evening Journal, in the Leominster News, and others. A review of another Rowsell book in 1901 listed the story among the publication credits for Rowsell, suggesting it may have been published as a book.
"Monksford Ferry", a longer short story. Appeared in multiple newspapers including the Sunday Citizen in Brooklyn, the Eastern Press in Norfolk in 1899, and in the Western Chronicle in 1905.
"Paul Stormont's First Wife", a short story. Appeared in Norfolk News in 1900, and other outlets.

Later life

Rowsell had fallen on hard times by the end of the 19th century. The small annuity left her by her father, who died in 1882, and her mother, who died in 1897, shrank due to bad investment choices. As a result, she appealed four times to the Royal Literary Fund. Rowsell died at 81 years of age on 15 June 1921. The cause of death was stated to be epilepsy and senile decay.