The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Hungerford, Margaret Hamilton Wolfe Argles

HUNGERFORD, Margaret Hamilton Wolfe Argles (“The Duchess”), Irish novelist: b. Ross, Ireland, about 1855; d. Bandon, County Cork, 24 Jan, 1897. She was the daughter of a vicar choral of Cork Cathedral and the death of her first husband, Edward Argles, left her with a young family to support, whereupon she took to writing novels, using the pseudonym “The Duchess.” Later she was married to T. H. Hungerford. Her more than 30 novels were widely popular both in America and England and without possessing a large amount of literary value are cleverly written, entertaining fictions. Among them may he cited ‘Phyllis’ (1877); ‘Molly Bawn’ (1878); ‘Airy Fairy Lillian’ (1879); ‘Beauty's Daughters’ (1880); ‘Mrs. Geoffrey’ (1881); ‘Portia’ (1882); ‘O Tender Dolores’ (1885); ‘Green Pastures and Gray Grief’ (1886); ‘A Modern Circe’ (1887); ‘The Duchess’ (1887); ‘Undercurrents’ (1888); ‘Hon. Mrs. Vereker’ (1888). Consult Taisin, A., ‘Best Sellers of Yesterday’ (in Bookman, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 645, New York 1914).