Novelist and biographer. Born in Ireland, but lived when young mainly in France. Despite "her continental education", stated the Cyclopaedia of Female Biography, had "sound and healthy" tone in her writings. Contributed stories and sketches to People's Journal, Eliza Cook's Journal, Ladies' Companion, and other periodicals; reviewed books on French literature and history for Athenaeum. Was one of contributors to Victoria Regia. Author of Madeleine, 1848; Nathalie, 1850; Adele, 1858; and other works of fiction. Had the reputation, according to Percy Fitzgerald, of being "a very 'respectable' writer". "I well recall", he wrote, "when it was correct to send to the libraries for her last novel, whose merits were discussed at dinner parties" (Memories of Charles Dickens, p. 276). Author of Woman in France during the Eighteenth Century, English Women of Letters, and other biographical compilations; also A Summer and Winter in the Two Sicilies.

Dickens was acquainted with Miss Kavanagh (letter to Alfred Hachette, June 9 1856).

Forget-Me-Nots, a posthumously published collection of stories by Miss Kavanagh, includes some of her A.Y.R. contributions.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography