Edith Anna Oenone Somerville, 1858-1949 | Violet Martin, 1862-1915

Edith Anna Oenone Somerville (1858-1949) Edith Anna Oenone Somerville (1858-1949) Irish novelist and artist. b. Corfu, 1858, family returning to Drishane, Co. Cork in 1859. ed. Alexandra College, Dublin. Studied art in London, Dusseldorf, and Paris after 1884, and became a magazine illustrator. She exhibited later in Dublin, London and New York, 1920-38. In 1886, met her cousin, Violet Martin, with whom she formed the successful literary partnership, Somerville and Ross. Their first book, An Irish Cousin, appeared in 1889, and by Martin's death in 1915 they had published 14 titles together, including The Real Charlotte (1894), Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899) and In Mr Knox's Country (1915). Somerville continued to write and publish as Somerville and Ross despite Martin's untimely death, believing that, through spiritualist sances, the two remained in contact. Subsequent successes included Irish Memories (1917) and The Big House at Inver (1925). In 1903, she became the first woman Master of Foxhounds and from 1912-19, served as Master of the West Carberry Pack. She was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Dublin in 1922 and in 1941 received the Gregory Gold Medal from the Irish Academy of Letters, of which she was a founding member. d. Drishane, 1949.

Publications include: Mount Music (1919); The States through Irish Eyes (1930); An Incorruptible Irishman (1932); The Sweet Cry of Hounds (1936); Sarah's Youth (1938); Maria and Some Other Dogs (1949), and with Violet Martin, An Irish Cousin (1889, re-written, 1903); Naboth's Vineyard (1891); In the Vine Country (1893); Through Connemara in a Governess Cart (1893); The Real Charlotte (1894); Beggars on Horseback (1895); The Silver Fox (1897); Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899); A Patrick's Day Hunt (1902); All on the Irish Shore (1903); Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1908); Dan Russell the Fox (1911); In Mr Knox's Country (1915); Irish Memories (1917); The Big House of Inver (1925); French Leave (1928)

[Source: Dictionary of Irish Biography, 1998; Eirdata http://www.pgil-eirdata.org ; A Biographical Dictionary of Ireland from 1500, John C. Kinoulty (Unpublished - presented to QUB, 1991; Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1990]

Violet Florence Martin (1862-1915) Violet Florence Martin (1862-1915) Irish novelist, under the name "Martin Ross" . b. Ross House, Co. Galway, 1862. ed. Alexandra College, Dublin. Spent most of her life at Ross and Drishane in Co. Cork, home of her cousin, Edith Somerville, with whom she formed a successful literary partnership from c 1886. Together they published 14 titles under the name of Somerville and Ross. Their first book, An Irish Cousin, appeared in 1889. This was followed by other notable successes including The Real Charlotte (1894), Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899) and In Mr Knox's Country (1915). Suffered horse-riding accident in 1898 and was in constant pain thereafter, spending her last years as an invalid. d. Cork, 1915.

Publications include: Some Irish Yesterdays (1906); Stray Aways (1920), and with Edith Somerville, An Irish Cousin (1889, re-written, 1903); Naboth's Vineyard (1891); In the Vine Country (1893); Through Connemara in a Governess Cart (1893); The Real Charlotte (1894); Beggars on Horseback (1895); The Silver Fox (1897); Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899); A Patrick's Day Hunt (1902); All on the Irish Shore (1903); Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1908); Dan Russell the Fox (1911); In Mr Knox's Country (1915); Irish Memories (1917); The Big House of Inver (1925); French Leave (1928)

[Source: Dictionary of Irish Biography, 1998; Eirdata http://www.pgil-eirdata.org ; A Biographical Dictionary of Ireland from 1500, John C. Kinoulty (Unpublished - presented to QUB, 1991; Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1990]

From the guide to the Somerville and Ross Manuscript Collection, 1873, (Queen's University, Belfast)