Maria Edgeworth

Maria Edgeworth was a prolific AngloIrish writer of adults and childrens literature. She was one of the first realist writers in childrens literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She held advanced views, for a woman of her time, on estate management, politics and education, and corresponded with some of the leading literary and economic writers, including Sir Walter Scott and David Ricardo.

Maria Edgeworth was born at Black Bourton, Oxfordshire. She was the second child of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Anna Maria Edgeworth Maria was thus an aunt of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth. She spent her early years with her mothers family in England, until her mothers death when Maria was five. When her father married his second wife Honora Sneyd in 1773, she went with him to his estate, Edgeworthstown, in County Longford, Ireland.

Source: Wikipedia