Author and translator. Born in West Indies; as very young child, taken by her widowed mother to Copenhagen; later lived in Weimar and Paris, thereafter in London; became proficient in Scandinavian languages as well as in German and French. For many years was private secretary to Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid, M.P.; assisted him in his philanthropic work. During later years of her life was a Swedenborgian. Published History of the French Revolution, 1844; wrote, for Chambers's Library for Young People, a history of England and one of Scotland. Edited Morceaux choisis des auteurs modernes, 1847. Translated a novel from the Swedish of C. A. Wetterbergh and, from the German, the life of Friedrich SchIeiermacher. Commissioned by Queen Victoria to translate selections from Stunden der Andacht, a devotional work generally attributed to J. H. D. Zschokke; the selections published in 2 volumes, 1862, 1863. Contributed "A Norwegian Legend. From the Danish" to A Welcome, 1863. Translated various reports and pamphlets for the Foreign Office. Described by George Eliot, who met her in 1852, as "a learned lady in spectacles" (Letters, II, 9).

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

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography