L. T. Meade


L. T. Meade was the pseudonym of Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, a prolific writer of girls' stories. She was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, daughter of Rev. R. T. Meade, of Nohoval, County Cork. She later moved to London, where she married Alfred Toulmin Smith in September 1879.
She began writing at 17 and produced over 300 books in her lifetime, being so prolific that no fewer than eleven new titles under her byline appeared in the first few years after her death. She was primarily known for her books for young people, of which the most famous was A World of Girls, published in 1886. However, she also wrote "sentimental" and "sensational" stories, religious stories, historical novels, adventure, romances, and mysteries, including several with male co-authors. The first of these was Dr. Clifford Halifax, with whom she first collaborated in 1893 and wrote six books. A year later she first teamed with Robert Eustace, and turned out eleven volumes with him. Her last co-author was Sir Robert Kennaway Douglas ; they produced only one book, in 1897. The Eustace partnerships are notable for two female villains, Madame Sara and Madame Koluchy. Meade and Eustace also created the occult detective and palmist Diana Marburg, who first appeared in the US edition of Pearson's Magazine in 1902. One of her most unusual titles is Dumps; A Plain Girl. She was also the editor of a popular girls' magazine, Atalanta.
Meade was a feminist and a member of the Pioneer Club. Following the death of women's-rights pioneer and Pioneer Club founder Emily Langton Massingberd, Meade wrote a novel in 1898 based on her life titled The Cleverest Woman in England.

List of her works

Books for young readers

  1. Scamp and I: A Story/Study of City Byways
  2. Lettie's Last Home
  3. David’s Little Lad
  4. Water Lilies and Other Tales
  5. The Children’s Kingdom: The Story of a Great Endeavor
  6. Outcast Robin, or Your Brother and Mine: A Cry from the Great City
  7. Great St. Benedict's: A Tale
  8. Water Gipsies: A Story of Canal Life in England
  9. Dot and Her Treasures
  10. Andrew Harvey's Wife
  11. A Dweller in Tents
  12. Mou-Setse, a Negro Hero, with The Orphan's Pilgrimage
  13. Mother Herring's Chicken
  14. The Children's Pilgrimage
  15. Scarlet Anemones
  16. The Autocrat of the Nursery
  17. The Angel of Love
  18. A Little Silver Trumpet
  19. A World of Girls: The Story of a School
  20. The Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls
  21. Sweet Nancy
  22. Deb and the Duchess: A Story for Girls
  23. Nobody's Neighbors
  24. A Band of Three
  25. The Golden Lady
  26. Polly: A New-Fashioned Girl
  27. The Little Princess of Tower Hill
  28. Those Boys, a Story for All Little Fellows
  29. The Honorable Miss: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Town
  30. Frances Kane's Fortune, What Gold Cannot Buy
  31. A Girl of the People
  32. Little Trouble-the-House
  33. Engaged to Be Married: A Tale of Today
  34. The Heart of Gold
  35. Dickory Dock
  36. Just a Love Story
  37. The Beresford Prize
  38. Marigold
  39. Hepsy Gipsy
  40. A Sweet Girl Graduate
  41. The Children of Wilton Chase
  42. Little Mary and Other Stories
  43. Bashful Fifteen
  44. Jill, A Flower Girl
  45. Four on an Island: A Story of Adventure
  46. The Lady of the Forest: A Story for Girls
  47. Out of the Fashion
  48. Beyond the Blue Mountains
  49. Betty, A School Girl
  50. Red Rose and Tiger Lily; or, In a Wider World
  51. Girls, New And Old
  52. The House of Surprises: A Story for Girls
  53. Good Luck: A Story for Girls
  54. A Girl in Ten Thousand
  55. Playmates: A Story for Boys and Girls
  56. The Merry Girls of England
  57. A Little Mother to the Others
  58. Wild Kitty: A School Story
  59. Bad Little Hannah: A Story for Girls
  60. Catalina: Art Student
  61. A Handful of Silver
  62. A Bunch of Cherries: A Story of Cherry Court School
  63. Cave Perilous
  64. The Rebellion of Lil Carrington
  65. Mary Gifford, M.B./S.
  66. Me and My Dolls: The Story of the Joys and Troubles of Miss Bo-Peep and Her Doll Family... The Strange Adventures of Mopsy and Hans
  67. A Public School Boy: A Memoir of H. S. Wristbridge
  68. The Desire of Men: An Impossibility
  69. The Odds and the Evens
  70. A Brave Poor Thing
  71. The Temptation of Olive Latimer
  72. Light o' the Morning: The Story of an Irish Girl
  73. How Nora Crena Saved Her Own
  74. The Time of Roses: A Story for Girls
  75. A Lonely Puppy, & The Tambourine Girl
  76. Daddy’s Girl
  77. A Big Temptation and Other Stories
  78. Miss Nonentity: A Story for Girls
  79. Girls of the True Blue: A School Story
  80. The New Mrs. Lascelles
  81. The Cosey Corner, Or How They Kept A Farm
  82. A Sister of the Red Cross: A Tale of the South African War
  83. A Very Naughty Girl
  84. The Rebel of the School
  85. The Girls of the Forest
  86. The Squire's Little Girl
  87. Drift
  88. The Princess Who Gave Away All, & The Naughty One of the Family
  89. Margaret
  90. Queen Rose: A Girl's Story
  91. The Manor School
  92. Peter the Pilgrim: The Story of a Boy and His Pet Rabbit
  93. The Witch Maid
  94. A Gay Charmer: A Story for Girls
  95. Stories from the Old, Old Bible
  96. That Brilliant Peggy
  97. Tic-Tac-Too, & Butterfly Valley
  98. Petronella, & The Coming of Polly
  99. The Girls of Mrs. Pritchard's School
  100. A Madcap
  101. Nurse Charlotte
  102. A Modern Tomboy: A Story for Girls
  103. A Bevy of Girls
  104. A Young Mutineer: A Story for Girls
  105. The Colonel and the Boy
  106. A Golden Shadow
  107. The Hill-Top Girl
  108. Turquoise and Ruby
  109. Sue: The Story of a Little Heroine and Her Friend
  110. Queen of the Day
  111. A Girl from America
  112. The Red Cap of Liberty
  113. The Little School-Mothers: A Story for Girls
  114. The Scamp Family: A Story for Girls
  115. Three Girls from School
  116. The Lady of Jerry Boy's Dreams: A Story for Girls
  117. The Court Harman Girls
  118. Betty of the Rectory
  119. Sarah's Mother
  120. The School Queens: A Story for Girls
  121. Blue of the Sea
  122. Blue Shoes and Black
  123. Daddy's Boy
  124. Betty Vivian: A Story of Haddo Court School
  125. Rosa Regina: A Story for Girls
  126. Nance Kennedy
  127. Pretty-Girl and the Others
  128. Their Little Mother: A Story for Girls
  129. The Girls of Merton College
  130. For Dear Dad: A Story for Girls
  131. Corporal Violet
  132. How It All Came Round
  133. Kitty O'Donovan: A School Story
  134. The Chesterton Girl Graduates: A Story for Girls
  135. The Girls of King's Royal: A Story for Girls
  136. The School Favorite: A School Girls Story
  137. Golden Hours Story Book
  138. A Band of Mirth
  139. The Wooing of Monica
  140. The Queen of Joy
  141. The Girls of Castle Rocco: A Home Story for Girls
  142. Greater Than Gold
  143. The Daughter of a Soldier: A Colleen of South Ireland
  144. Jill, the Irresistible
  145. Winter Fun for Merry Hearts
  146. Hollyhock: A Spirit of Mischief
  147. Better Than Riches
  148. Cassie, & Little Mary''

    Mysteries

  149. This Troublesome World
  150. The Arrest of Captain Vandaleur: How Miss Cusack Discovered His Trick
  151. The Ponsonby Diamonds: Stories from the Diary of a Doctor
  152. A Princess of the Gutter
  153. The Voice of the Charmer
  154. Dr. Rumsey's Patient: A Very Strange Story
  155. A Son of Ishmael: A Clever Detective Story
  156. Stories from the Diary of a Doctor, Second Series
  157. Under the Dragon Throne
  158. Where the Air Quivered
  159. The Cleverest Woman in England
  160. On the Brink of a Chasm: A Record of Plot and Passion
  161. A Master of Mysteries
  162. Mr. Bovey's Unexpected Will
  163. An Adventuress
  164. The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings
  165. The Gold Star Line
  166. Wages: A Novel
  167. The Outside Ledge
  168. The Sanctuary Club
  169. Where the Shoe Pinches
  170. The Blue Diamond
  171. The Secret of the Dead
  172. Wheels of Iron
  173. A Race With the Sun
  174. Confessions of a Court Milliner
  175. A Double Revenge
  176. The Dead Hand: Being the First of the Experiences of the Oracle of Maddox Street
  177. Fingertips: One of the Sensational Experiences of Diana Marburg, the Oracle of Maddox Street
  178. The Sorceress of the Strand
  179. The Lost Square
  180. The Face in the Dark
  181. The Adventures of Miranda
  182. At the Back of the World
  183. A Maid of Mystery
  184. Silenced
  185. The Lady Cake-Maker
  186. The Oracle of Maddox Street
  187. His Mascot
  188. Bess of Delaney's
  189. A Golden Shadow
  190. From the Hand of the Hunter
  191. The Home of Sweet Content
  192. The Maid With the Goggles
  193. The Girl and Her Fortune
  194. The Chateau of Mystery
  195. The Curse of the Feverals
  196. The Home of Silence
  197. Kindred Spirits
  198. The Red Ruth
  199. The Courtship of Sybil
  200. The Fountain of Beauty
  201. I Will Sing a New Song
  202. The Necklace of Parmona
  203. The Pursuit of Penelope
  204. The Stormy Petrel
  205. Wild Heather
  206. The A. B. C. Girl
  207. Micah Faraday, Adventurer
  208. Twenty-Four Hours: A Novel of Today
  209. The House of Black Magic
  210. The Great Lord Masareene
  211. The Passion of Kathleen Duveen
  212. Her Happy Face
  213. The Maid Indomitable
  214. The Detections of Miss Cusack

    Other titles

  215. A Knight of Today
  216. Bel Marjory: A Tale
  217. Miss Toosey's Mission
  218. Laddie
  219. The Floating Light of Ringfinnan, and Guardian Angels
  220. A Band of Three
  221. A London Baby: The Story of King Roy
  222. How It All Came About
  223. Hermie's Rosebuds and Other Stories
  224. Tip Cat
  225. The Two Sisters
  226. Our Little Ann: A Tale
  227. Merry Chimes for Happy Times
  228. Faithful Friends: Stories of Struggle and Victory
  229. Beforehand
  230. Letters to Our Working-Party
  231. The O'Donnells of Inchfawn
  232. Pen
  233. Poor Miss Carolina
  234. A Farthingful
  235. A Life for a Love: A Story of Today
  236. A Soldier of Fortune
  237. Kitty O'Hara
  238. The Least of These, and Other Stories
  239. The Heart of Helen
  240. The White Tzar
  241. The Way of a Woman
  242. The Secret of Emu Plain
  243. The Siren
  244. The Girl of St. Wode's
  245. The Cleverest Woman in England
  246. All Sorts
  247. A Plucky Girl
  248. In a Time of Roses
  249. A Stumble by the Way
  250. Stories from the Diary of a Doctor, Third Series
  251. The Blood-Red Cross
  252. Madame Sara
  253. The Face of the Abbot
  254. Through Peril for a Wife
  255. The Pursuit of Penelope
  256. The Burden of Her Youth
  257. Resurgam
  258. By Mutual Consent
  259. Followed
  260. Rosebury
  261. Love Trumphant
  262. Castle Poverty
  263. Bride of Tomorrow
  264. Nurse Charlotte
  265. The Other Woman
  266. Dumps: A Plain Girl
  267. Willful Cousin Kate: A Girl's Story
  268. Old Readymoney's Daughter
  269. Little Wife Hester
  270. Loveday: The Story of an Heiress
  271. The Other Woman
  272. The Face of Juliet
  273. Victory
  274. In the Flower of Her Youth
  275. The Colonel’s Conquest
  276. Little Josephine
  277. The Lady of Delight
  278. The Love of Susan Cardigan
  279. The Aim of Her Life
  280. Hetty Beresford
  281. A Lovely Fiend/Friend and Other Stories
  282. Brother or Husband
  283. Alwyn's Friends
  284. Oceana's Girlhood
  285. The Princess of the Revels
  286. "The Least of These" and Other Stories
  287. Belinda Treherne
  288. Sue, a Little Heroine
  289. A Girl of Today
  290. The Wild Irish Girl
  291. Lady Anne
  292. Miss Gwendoline
  293. Desborough's Wife
  294. The Doctor's Children
  295. The Soul of Margaret Rand
  296. The Girl from Spain
  297. Mother and Son
  298. A Bunch of Cousins and the Barn Boys
  299. Love's Cross Roads
  300. Lord and Lady Kitty
  301. Peggy from Kerry
  302. The Girls of Abinger Close
  303. Elizabeth's Prisoner
  304. A Girl of High Adventure
  305. The Darling of the School
  306. Madge Mostyn's Nieces
  307. The Fairy Godmother
  308. Miss Patricia
  309. Roses and Thorns
  310. Old Rail Fence Corners
  311. Without Witnesses
  312. Mrs. Reid's Terror
  313. The Pearl: A Complete Story
  314. A Botanical Ladder for the Young
  315. The Grass-Green Carpet

    Short stories

Although most of Meade's shorter work remains confined to the pages of magazines, examples may be found in the following anthologies: