Margaret Oliphant was born in Wallyford, Midlothian, the only daughter and youngest child of Francis W. Wilson, an excise clerk, and his wife, Margaret Oliphant: the family moved to Liverpool in 1838. Margaret received a literary education from her mother, whose pride in her daughter's talent was tempered by the conviction that it must not exempt her from the performance of a woman's domestic duties. It was while nursing her mother, and recovering from a broken engagement, that she wrote her first novel at the age of 17: this was subsequently published, without her permission, as
Christian Melville(1856) by her middle brother, Willie, himself an aspiring novelist.
The beginning of Willie's slide into chronic alcoholism and debt overshadowed the excitement of the publication of her first
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Citation: Jay, Lis. "Margaret Oliphant". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3412, accessed 22 November 2024.]
