Ella Hepworth Dixon

Ella Hepworth Dixon (1855–1932) was a British author during the late Victorian period. Her best known work is the New Woman novel The Story of a Modern Woman. This novel was published in 1894.

Life

Ella Hepworth Dixon was born in London in 1855. She was the seventh child in a family of eight born to William Hepworth Dixon and Marian MacMahon Dixon. William was an editor, and consequently, literature and the arts were valued in their house for the boys and girls. William's position also brought writers and thinkers into the house, including Geraldine Jewsbury, T.H. Huxley, Richard Francis Burton, Lord Bulwer Lytton, Sir John Everett Millais, and E.M. Ward.

Ella received an outstanding education for a young woman at her time, studying at Heidelberg and the London School of Music, as well as painting in Paris. In 1888, Ella accepted Oscar Wilde's offer to become the editor of Woman's World. She eventually also turned to playwriting. She died in 1932 at the age of 76.

References

Dixon, Ella Hepworth. "The Story of a Modern Woman." Ed. Steve Farmer. Broadview Literary Texts: Toronto, 2004.