A Sweet Girl Graduate

L T Meade was the pseudonym used by Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (1844-1914) who was a prolific writer, primarily of girls' stories. She was born in Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland, but later moved to London where she married Alfred Toulmin Smith in 1879. She began writing at 17 and produced over 300 books in her lifetime, with others published posthumously. In addition to her juvenile fiction, the best known of which is her school story A World of Girls (1886), she also wrote sentimental and sensational stories, religious stories, historical novels, adventure stories, romances and mysteries, some in collaboration with male authors. Meade was a feminist and member of the Pioneer Club, and following the death of the club's founder, Emily Langton Massingbird, she wrote a novel based on her life entitled The Cleverest Woman in England (1898). This story for older girls was first published in 1891, then updated around 1910 under the new title of Priscilla's Promise. Reprinted from the original edition with seven illustrations by Hal Ludlow.