Or Margaret, as we are intending to call her these days.
Oliphant was one of the most popular, long-lived, and successful lady novelists of the Victorian age, publishing almost one hundred novels across the timely wingspan of six decades. This was quite a (pocket) change from the (nominally) more tragic authors of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
Margaret lost her husband to overwork and exhaustion after just seven short years of wedded bliss, with six children appearing in quick succession, three of whom died in infancy. Her surviving daughter died at ten, and both of her surviving sons died in their thirties. Mrs. Oliphant outlived them all.
Margaret survived three years after her last son was taken from her, writing steadily all the while, right up to the very end. The will to write can be stronger than the will to live. Especially when you make a lifelong habit out of it.
Keech Ballard 