Keary, ANNIE

Keary, ANNIE, novelist, was born 3d March 1825, at Bilton, in Yorkshire, where her father was rector, having sold out of the army and taken orders after the loss of his estate in County Galway. Her sympathetic insight into the hearts of children gave her the first impulse to write, and made the success of Little Wanderlin and the Heroes of Asgard (written together with her sister Eliza), as well as the later books, A York and a Lancaster Rose, Mia and Charley, and Rival Kings. She spent her life at Hull, Trent Vale in Staffordshire, London, Brighton, and Eastbourne, wintering twice near Cannes and once in Egypt. Of a sensitive and impressionable temperament wedded to a strong understanding, she passed through a troubled spiritual experience, but found rest in a fervent Christianity with unwearied devotion to her friends and to the poor. She died after a year's illness at Eastbourne, 3d March 1879. Two admirable books outside her usual province were Early Egyptian History and The Nations Around. Her first novel was Through the Shadows, and this was followed by Janet's Home, Clemency Franklyn, and Oldbury. Castle Daly was hailed as an Irish novel of unusual excellence—while writing it she paid the island the one brief visit of her life. Her latest work, and perhaps her greatest, was A Doubting Heart. See the Memoir by her sister (1882).