Banks, Isabella (1821–1897)
Banks, Isabella (1821–1897)
British author. Name variations: (pseudonyms) Isabella Varley; Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks. Born Isabella Varley, Mar 25, 1821, in Manchester, England; died May 5, 1897, in Dalston, England; dau. of James and Amelia (Daniels) Varley; educated at Miss Hannah Spray's Ladies' Day School and Rev. John Wheeldon's academy; m. George Linnaeus Banks (poet and journalist), 1846; children: Agnes, Esther, George, and 5 who died in infancy.
At 17, established School for Young Ladies in Manchester suburb of Cheetham; published poetry in local publications before release of collection Ivy Leaves (1844); faced with husband's alcoholism, turned to writing to support family and published 1st novel God's Providence House (1865), which was followed by more than 50 others in next 25 years; wrote most famous work The Manchester Man, which remains a widely read depiction of industrial revolution in Manchester; published Caleb Booth's Clerk (1878) and Wooers and Winners (1880), sealing her reputation as the "Lancashire novelist"; also wrote (with G. Linnaeus Banks) Daisies in the Grass (1865), Geoffrey Oliphant's Folly (1886) and The Bridge of Beauty (1894).
See also E. L. Burney, Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks (Morten, 1969); and Women in World History.