Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Letitia Elizabeth Landon

LANDON, Letitia Elizabeth (1802–1838), a writer of poetry and fiction, better known by her initials L. E. L. than as Miss Landon or Mrs Maclean, was descended from an old Herefordshire family, and was born at Chelsea, 14th August 1802. Her father, an army agent, succeeded in amassing a large property, which he lost by speculation shortly before his death. By this time the daughter by her contributions to the Literary Gazette and to various Christmas annuals, as well as by some volumes of verse, had acquired a wide literary fame. Probably her position in society contributed to the interest they awakened, but the gentle melancholy and romantic sentiment her writings embodied would in any case have secured her the sympathy and approval of a wide class of readers. Though deficient in condensation and finish, they occasionally display a richness of fancy and an aptness of language which might have ripened, by more sedulous culture, into true poetical worth. In June 1838 she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle, but she only survived her marriage a few months, dying from an overdose of prussic acid, which, it is supposed, was taken accidentally.

For some time L. E. L. was joint editor of the Literary Gazette. Her first volume of poetry appeared in 1820 under the title The Fate of Adelaide, and was followed by other collections of verses with similar titles. She also wrote several novels. Various editions of her Poetical Works have been published since her death, the last being that with an introductory memoir by W. B. Scott, 1880. The Life and Literary Remains of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, by Laman Blanchard, appeared in 1841, and a second edition in 1855.