Woman of the Century/Molly Elliott Seawell

SEAWELL, Miss Holly Elliot, author, was born in a country-house in Gloucester county, Va. Her early education was irregular in the extreme. She was not allowed to read a novel until she was seventeen years old. She read history and encyclopaedias, Shakespeare, Shelley and Byron, and went to school at intervals, to learn the common branches. MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL. She learned to ride, to dance and to conduct a household. After the death of her father the family made their home in Norfolk, Va., and there Miss Seawell began to devote herself to literature. She visited Europe, and on her return wrote a story, which was published in "Lippincott's Magazine" She then became a contributor to a number of leading periodicals, using rive different pen-names to conceal her identity. In 1888 she began to use her own name. She removed with her family to Washington, D. C., where for a time she wrote political correspondence for the New York dailies. Her first novel, "Hale Weston," was written for "Lippincott's Magazine" in 1887. It was translated into German and had a large sale. Her next book was "The Berkeleys and Their Neighbors," in 1888, and her most successful book, "Throckmorton," appeared in 1889. It has passed through a number of editions. Another of her books is "Little Jarvis." She contributed to the "Youth's Companion" a story that won a prize of five-hundred dollars. Her books are pictures of life in Virginia before the Civil War. She is fond of society, and her home in Washington is a resort of well-known people.