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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Anna Brownell Jameson Biography JAMESON, Anna Brownell (Murphy) (1794-1860). A British author, born in Dublin. She was the daughter of D. Brownell Murphy, the miniature painter, and married Robert Jameson, a barrister, from whom, however, she soon separated. Her first book, The Diary of an Ennuyée (1826), was followed by Loves of the Poets (1829) and Characteristics of Women (1832), a series of essays on Shakespeare's women, which is probably her best work and is still current in various editions. In 1836 she visited New England, where she remained two years. Her Sacred and Legendary Art is divided into four volumes: Legends of the Saints (1848 , Legends of the Monastic Orders (1850), Legends of the Madonna (1850), and The History of Our Lord (1860), completed by Lady Eastlake and the most important of her art writings. Though Mrs. Jameson's work as a critic is of little value, her compilations contain much material not easily obtainable from other sources, and her style is pleasant and readable. Consult Macpherson, Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson (Boston, 1878), and biography by Richard Garnett in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxix (London, 1892). The New International Encyclopaedia Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 555. |