Iza Duffus Hardy | |
---|---|
Born | Enfield | 11 October 1850
Died | 30 August 1922 Paddington, London | (aged 71)
Occupation(s) | Writer, novelist |
Parent(s) | Thomas Duffus Hardy Mary Anne Hardy |
Iza Duffus Hardy (11 October 1850 – 30 August 1922) was a prolific British novelist and travel writer, associated with the pre-Raphaelite artistic community.
Iza Duffus Hardy was born in Enfield, the daughter of archivist Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–1878) and author Mary Anne Hardy (née MacDowell; 1824–1891).[1][2][3] She was "educated chiefly at home",[4] by her parents.[5] She was distantly related to the novelist Thomas Hardy, who referred to her as "my very remote consanguinean" in a personal notebook in 1886.[6]
Hardy was a prolific novelist and short story writer. Books by Hardy include Not Easily Jealous (1872),[7] Between Two Fires (1873), For the Old Love's Sake (1875),[8] Glencairn (1877),[9] Only a Love-Story (1877),[10] A Broken Faith (1878),[11] Friend and Lover (1880),[12] Love, Honour, and Obey (1881),[13] The Love that He Passed By (1884),[14] Hearts or Diamonds? (1885), The Westhorpe Mystery (1886), The Girl He Did Not Marry (1887),[15] Love In Idleness (1887),[16] A New Othello (1890),[17] A Woman's Loyalty (1893), In the Springtime of Love (1895), MacGilleroy's Millions (1900), The Lesser Evil (1901), Man, Woman, and Fate (1902), The Master of Madrono Hills (1904),[18] A Trap of Fate (1906), and The Silent Watchers (1910).[19] Her shorter works, comprising stories, sketches, and serialized versions of her novels, appeared in Tinsley's Magazine,[20] London Society, Belgravia, The Gentleman's Magazine,[21] and The Strand Magazine.[22]
Hardy and her mother traveled to the United States several times, touring the South,[23] the West,[24] and Florida,[25] and visiting with prominent Americans including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes.[5] She wrote about her travels in Between Two Oceans (1884)[26] and Oranges and Alligators (1886).[27]
Hardy was in the social orbit of the pre-Raphaelite artists.[25][28] Ford Madox Brown made a large pastel portrait of Hardy in 1872.[25]
Hardy lived in Maida Vale for much of her adult life. She received a government pension after her mother's death, in recognition of her father's career in the Public Record Office.[29] She was skilled at needlework and other handcrafts.[5] She was briefly engaged to American poet Joaquin Miller, during his time in London in 1873.[30] She died in a Paddington nursing home in 1922, aged 71 years.[25] Ford Madox Brown's 1872 portrait of Hardy is in the collection of Birmingham Museums.[31] Two letters by Hardy to Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti are in the Sheila and Terry Meyers Collection of Swinburneiana at the College of William & Mary.[28]