Mary De Morgan

Mary Augusta De Morgan (24 February 1850 – 18 May 1907) was an English writer and the author of three volumes of fairy-tales: On a Pincushion (1877); The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde (1880); and The Windfairies (1900). She was also a suffragist, storyteller and educator.

Early life and family

Mary Augusta De Morgan was born on 24 February 1850 in 7 Camden Street, London, England. She was the youngest child of the seven children of mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan and his wife, spiritualist writer, phrenologist and activist Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (née Frend). When De Morgan was three years old, her elder sister Alice died from measles at the age of 15, drawing her mother to spiritualism.

In her youth, De Morgan earned herself a reputation for tactlessness, apparently at one point telling Henry Holiday, "All artists are fools! Look at yourself and Mr. Solomon!" Mrs. Poynter, wife of the artist Edward Poynter, wrote in a letter to her sister Alice that De Morgan, "chattered awfully, and Louie, she is only just fifteen. I believe a judicious course of snubbing would do her good!" De Morgan also apparently said something to offend a young Bernard Shaw who, according to Lancelyn Green, "hated her exceedingly".

Following her father's death in 1871, De Morgan resided with her brother William in his Chelsea home on Kensington Church Street, until his marriage in 1887, after which she lived in lodgings while making a living as a typist. Her brother was a member of the arts and crafts movement and she and De Morgan were close friends with many literary figures, novelists and artists of the day. Mostly during her time living with her brother William, De Morgan told stories to her own nephews and nieces, as well as to the children of these friends and family: Jenny Morris and May Morris, children of William Morris; a young Rudyard Kipling and his sister "Trix", as well as their cousins, the Burne-Joneses and the Mackails. Angela Thirkell (née Mackail), and her brother, Denis Mackail, both novelists in adulthood, were treated to the stories of De Morgan in their youth. William Morris was fond of her stories, and when he was dying from tuberculosis in 1896, Mary came to nurse him.