Ada Buisson, c. 1866

Ada Buisson (26 March 1839 – 27 December 1866) was an English novelist best remembered for her ghost stories.

Biography

Ada Buisson was born in Battersea in Surrey, the third child of French-born merchant Jean François (aka 'John Francis') Buisson (1797–1871) and his English wife Dorothy Jane (née Smither; 1817–1852).[1][2] Her eldest sibling was Leontine, who later became a teacher, trade union organiser, suffragist and campaigner for women's rights in Queensland, Australia.[3] Her father was declared bankrupt in 1842, and in about 1850 she and her family moved to Brighton,[1][4] where her mother died in 1852. From 1854 to 1855, along with her sisters Leontine and Irma, she studied moral philosophy and natural history at the women-only Bedford College in London.[5]

Ada Buisson died in 1866 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, aged 27.[1]

Work

During her life, Buisson published one novel, Put to the Test (1865), published by John Maxwell.[1] The remainder of her work, consisting of a second novel, A Terrible Wrong: A Novel (1867), published by T. C. Newby, and various short stories, were published shortly after her death. Various of her writings appeared in Belgravia, a magazine edited by her friend, the novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon,[1] whom she met through Braddon's husband, Buisson's publisher John Maxwell. In this were posthumously published her six ghost stories: "My Aunt's Pearl Ring" (1867), "A Story Told in a Church" (1867), "The Ghost's Summons" (1868), "The Baron's Coffin" (1869), and "My Sister Caroline" (1870).[6] Buisson's writings were later mistakenly ascribed to Braddon by Montague Summers, a scholar of Gothic literature.[1] Summers's mistake, published in The Times Literary Supplement on 30 September 1944, was corrected by Buisson's nephew Frederick Buisson Evans (1874-1952) three weeks later.[6][7]

Buisson's tale "The Ghost's Summons", published posthumously in Belgravia (January 1868),[8] has been anthologised in collections of ghost stories.[9][10][11] A collection of five of her ghost stories, originally printed in Belgravia, was published in 2022 as The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales.[12][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Ada Buisson (1839–1866) Archived 6 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Victorian Research: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901
  2. ^ Ada Buisson, 1841 Census for England and Wales, Ancestry.com (subscription required) Archived 16 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Leontine Cooper". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  4. ^ Ada Buisson, 1851 Census for England and Wales, Ancestry.com (subscription required) Archived 16 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Ada Buisson, Royal Holloway and Bedford College Student Registers 1849–1931, Ancestry.com (subscription required) Archived 16 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ a b Snailham, Fiona (ed.) Notes on "A Story Told in a Church", Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny, British Library, 2023, pg 127
  7. ^ The Review of English Studies, Volume os-XXI, Issue 82, April 1945, Pages 158–160, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/os-XXI.82.158 Published: 01 April 1945 (subscription required)
  8. ^ Moore, Tara (2009). "Ghost Stories at Christmas". Victorian Christmas in Print: 81–98. doi:10.1057/9780230623330_5. ISBN 978-1-349-37998-9. Retrieved 18 July 2022. Ada Buisson, "The Ghost's Summons," Belgravia 4 (January 1868): 358–63.
  9. ^ Moore, Tara (Ed.) "The Ghost's Summons" Archived 16 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine, The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume One, Valancourt Books (2016), ISBN 978-1943910564
  10. ^ Lamb, Hugh. Tales from A Gas-lit Graveyard, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York (1979), ISBN 0-486-43429-X
  11. ^ "The Ghost's Summons" in The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Volume 2, Wimbourne Books (2018), ISBN 0992982855.
  12. ^ "The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales (Paperback)". Elliott Bay Book Company. 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  13. ^ Buisson, Ada. The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales Archived 24 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Snuggly Books (2022) ISBN 978-1-64525-108-8

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