Amelia Edwards

Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards (7 June 1831 – 15 April 1892), also known as Amelia B. Edwards, was an English novelist, journalist, traveller and Egyptologist. Her most successful literary works included the ghost story "The Phantom Coach" (1864), the novels Barbara's History (1864) and Lord Brackenbury (1880), and the Egyptian travelogue A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877). In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund. She also edited a poetry anthology published in 1878.

Early life

Born in London to an Irish mother and a father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker, Edwards was educated at home by her mother and showed early promise as a writer. She published her first poem at the age of seven and her first story at the age of twelve. Thereafter came a variety of poetry, stories, and articles in several periodicals, including Chambers's Journal, Household Words, and All the Year Round. She also wrote for the Saturday Review and the Morning Post.

In addition, Edwards became an artist and would illustrate some of her own writings. She would also paint scenes from other books she had read. She was talented enough at the age of 12 to catch the eye of George Cruikshank, who went as far to offer to teach her, but this talent was not supported by Edwards's parents, who saw it as a lesser profession and the artist way of life as scandalous. This negative decision haunted Edwards through her early life. She would wonder frequently whether art would not have been her true calling.

Thirdly, Edwards took up composing and performing music for some years, until she suffered a bout of typhus in 1849 that was followed by a frequently sore throat. This made it hard for her to sing, causing her to lose interest in music and even regret the time she had spent on opera. Other interests she pursued included pistol shooting, riding, and mathematics.

Fiction
Early in the 1850s, Edwards began to focus more exclusively on being a writer. Her first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife (1855). Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel involving bigamy, that established her reputation as a novelist. She spent much time and effort on the settings and backgrounds of her books, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the research and writing of each. This paid off when her last novel, Lord Brackenbury (1880), became a runaway success that went to 15 editions.

Edwards wrote several ghost stories, including the frequently anthologised "The Phantom Coach" (1864). The background and characters in many of Edwards's writings are influenced by her own experiences. For example, Barbara's History (1864) uses Suffolk as the background, which she had visited for a few enjoyable summer holidays as a child.

Dolomites

Edwards first heard about the Dolomites in 1853, through sketches which had been brought back to England from Italy. On 27 June 1872, she embarked on a trip through the mountains with her friend Lucy Renshawe. That day they left Monte Generoso for Venice, one of the three known ways to enter the Dolomites, but not before they had parted from Renshawe's maid and courtier, who disapproved such a journey. Instead the two women hired mountain guides from the region. On 1 July 1872, after a three-day stay in Venice, Edwards and Renshawe left for Longarone, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Pieve di Cadore, Auronzo di Cadore, Val Buona, Caprile, Agordo, Primiero, Predazzo, Fassa Valley, Passo Fedaia, Sasso Bianco, Forno di Zoldo, Zoppè di Cadore and Caprile, and ended their journey in Bolzano. At the time of Edwards's visit, the Dolomites were described as being terra incognita, and even educated persons had never heard of them. This journey was described in her book A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites (1873), later renamed Untrodden Peaks and Infrequent Valleys (1873). During the expedition, Edwards also searched for the works of Titian, finding a Madonna and Child in Serravalle (Vittorio Veneto) and two other paintings at a village church in Cadore. After her descent from the mountains, Edwards described civilized life as a "dead-level World of Commonplace".

In the summer of 1873, dissatisfied by the end of their journey, Edwards and Renshawe took to a walking tour of France. However, this was interrupted by torrential rains, a factor that influenced them in looking towards Egypt.

Egypt

Edwards, accompanied by several friends, toured Egypt in the winter of 1873–1874, discovering a fascination with the land and its cultures, ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the party visited Philae and ultimately reached Abu Simbel, where they remained for six weeks. Renshawe remained among her travelling companions. Another party member was the English painter Andrew McCallum, who discovered an unknown sanctuary that came to bear his name for some time afterwards. Their boat joined in a flotilla with another female English traveller, Marianne Brocklehurst, also travelling with a female companion. Brocklehurst and Edwards remained friends and Brocklehurst later supported her Egypt Exploration fund.

Edwards wrote a vivid description of her Nile voyage entitled A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877). Enhanced with her own illustrations, this travelogue was an immediate best-seller.

Edwards' travels in Egypt made her aware of increasing threats to ancient monuments from tourism and modern development. She set out to hinder these through public awareness and scientific endeavour, becoming a tireless advocate for research and preservation of them. In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund with Reginald Stuart Poole, Curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards became joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death.

To advance the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned other writing in favour of Egyptology. She contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the American supplement of that work, and to the Standard Dictionary. In addition, Edwards embarked on an strenuous lecture tour in the United States in 1889–1890. These lectures were later published as Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers.

Death and legacy

After catching influenza, Edwards died on 15 April 1892 at Weston-super-Mare, having lived at Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol since 1864. She was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Henbury, Bristol, where her grave is marked by an obelisk, with a stone ankh at the foot. Alongside are the graves of her companion, Ellen Drew Braysher (9 April 1804 – 9 January 1892), with whom she had lived in Westbury-on-Trym, and of Ellen's daughter, Sarah Harriet Braysher (1832–1864). In September 2016, Historic England designated the grave as Grade II listed, celebrating it as a landmark in English LGBT history.

Edwards bequeathed her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, together with a sum of £2,500 to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology. Edwards was also a benefactor of Somerville College Library, having left many books, papers and watercolours to Somerville College, Oxford, along with a small collection of Greek and Roman pots.

In popular culture
In 2012, Edwards was portrayed as a non-singing character in Stephen Medcalf's production of Aida at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The opera opened with a Victorian "dig" among Egyptian tombs, and the action unfolded as Edwards imagined the plot taking place based on her exploration of the site. The libretto was based on a scenario devised by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, a contemporary of Edwards. 
Egyptologist and novelist Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz) took the first name of her noted character Amelia Peabody from Amelia Edwards.
In 2014, a new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, staged a music-theatre piece, I Was Here I Was I, based on Amelia Edwards's A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, at the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts' Sackler Wing. It was written and directed by Nigel Maister to music composed by Kate Soper.

Bibliography

History and archaeology
A Summary of English History: from the Roman Conquest to the present time, 1856
Outlines of English history: from the Roman conquest to the present time: with observations on the progress of art, science, and civilization, and questions adapted to each paragraph: for the use of schools (c. 1857)
The History of France; from the Conquest of Gaul by the Romans to the Peace of 1856, 1858
The Story of Cervantes, etc., 1862
A Thousand Miles Up the Nile London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd, 1877 (1st edition) and 1890 (2nd edition, )
Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1891

Novels
My Brother's Wife. A life–history, 1855
The Ladder of Life. A heart history, 1857
The Young Marquis, or, a story from a Reign, c. 1857
The Eleventh of March. (From a pocket-book of forty years ago), 1863
No Hero: an Autobiography, 1863
Barbara's History, 1864
Hand and Glove. A tale, 1865
Miss Carew (short stories), 1865
Half a Million of Money, c. 1868
Debenham's Vow, 1870
Monsieur Maurice, and other stories, 1873; contains the stories:
"Monsieur Maurice"
"An Engineer's Story"
"The Cabaret of the Break of Day"
"The Story of Ernst Christian Schoeffer"
"The New Pass"
"A Service of Danger"
"A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest"
"The Story of Salome"
"In the Confessional"
"The Tragedy in the Palazzo Bardell"
"The Four Fifteen Express"
"Sister Johanna's Story"
"All Saints' Eve"
In the Days of My Youth, 1873
Lord Brackenbury, 1880
The Phantom Coach, by Amelia B. Edwards; adapted by I. M. Richardson, illustrated by Hal Ashmead, c. 1982

Poetry
Ballads. London: Tinsley, 1865
A Poetry-book of Elder Poets, consisting of songs & sonnets, odes & lyrics, selected and arranged, with notes, from the works of the elder English poets, dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. 1878

Translations
Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt: for the use of students and travellers by Sir G. Maspero. Translated by Amelia B. Edwards

Travel
Sights and Stories: being some account of a Holiday Tour through the north of Belgium, 1862
A Thousand Miles up the Nile, 1877
Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites. London: Longman's, Green, and Co., 1873

Some dates and titles have been added from the catalogue of the British Library.

See also
Mary Brodrick

Biographies
Manley, Deborah (2015). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry.

References

External links

 
 

Category:British journalists
Category:English archaeologists
Category:English Egyptologists
Category:Writers from London
Category:English horror writers
Category:Women horror writers
Category:1831 births
Category:1892 deaths
Category:Deaths from the 1889–90 flu pandemic
Category:19th-century journalists
Category:Women archaeologists
Category:19th-century British women writers
Category:19th-century British writers
Category:LGBT writers from England
Category:British women historians