May Agnes Fleming Explained

May Agnes Fleming
Birth Date:15 November 1840
Birth Name:May Agnes Earlie
Birth Place:Carleton, New Brunswick, British North America
Death Place:Brooklyn
Resting Place:Calvary Cemetery, Brooklyn[1]
Nationality:Canadian
Pseudonym:Cousin May Carleton; M. A. Earlie
Occupation:Writer
Genre:Dime novel romance
Spouse:John W. Fleming
Children:4

May Agnes Fleming (pseudonyms, Cousin May Carleton, M. A. Earlie; November 15, 1840 – March 24, 1880) was a Canadian novelist. She was "one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction."

Biography

May Agnes Early[2] was born in Carleton, West Saint John, in the Colony of New Brunswick, the daughter of Bernard and Mary Early. May Agnes began publishing while studying at school. [3] She married an engineer, John W. Fleming, in 1865.[4] She moved to New York two years after her first novel, Erminie; or The gypsy's vow: a tale of love and vengeance was published there (1863).[5]

Under the pseudonym "Cousin May Carleton", she published several serial tales in the New York Mercury and the New York Weekly. Twenty-one were printed in book form, seven posthumously.[6] She also wrote under the pseudonym, "M.A. Earlie". The exact count is unclear, since her works were often retitled, but is estimated at around 40, although some were not actually written by her, but were attributed to her by publishers cashing in on her popularity.[7] At her peak, she was earning over $10,000 yearly, due to publishers granting her exclusive rights to her work.

She died in Brooklyn, of Bright's disease.[8]

Selected works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Fleming, May Agnes . Canada's Early Women Writers . Simon Fraser University Library (digital.lib.sfu.ca) . 15 April 2012.
  2. Cogswell, Fred. "Early, May Agnes (Fleming)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Volume X (1871–1880). (biographi.ca).
  3. Web site: May Agnes Fleming. Lorraine McMullen.
  4. Web site: Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media – Democratizing history through digital media . American Women's Dime Novel Project: Dime Novels for Women, 1870–1920 . Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (chnm.gmu.edu) . 3 November 2010 .
  5. Book: Story, Norah. The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature. registration. 1968. Oxford University Press. 254.
  6. Book: Wallace, W. Stewart. The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography. registration. 3rd. 1963. Macmillan. 235. LC 64-10158.
  7. News: Obituary. St. John Weekly Sun. May Agnes Fleming, a native of St. John, was a very prolific writer of romances for the story papers, and a large number of her novels have been published by the cheap libraries, as well as many that are not hers, but having been written since her death, have been accredited to her in order to give them circulation..
  8. Web site: MAY AGNES FLEMING: 1840–1880 – Canada's First Best-Selling Novelist . Hovey. Joan Hall . 3 November 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080508225420/http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/joanhallhovey/mayagnesfleming.html . 2008-05-08 . Originally published in the New Brunswick Reader.
  9. Wright bibliography number 918. Reel: F-6
  10. Wright Bibliography Number 920; by Cousin May Carleton (pseud.) Reel F-8
  11. Wright bibliography number 921. Reel: F-7

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