| 词条 | Catherine Sinclair |
| 释义 |
Catherine Sinclair (17 April 1800 – 6 August 1864) was a Scottish novelist and a writer of children's literature which departed from the moralising approach common in that period. She is credited with discovering that the author of the anonymous Waverley Novels was Sir Walter Scott. LifeCatherine Sinclair was born at 9 Charlotte Square[1] in Edinburgh on 17 April 1800, the fourth daughter of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet and Lady Diana Macdonald. The family lived at 6 Charlotte Square[2] from around 1810 but later moved to 133 George Street.[3] She was her father's secretary from the age of 14 until his death in 1835.[4][4] From 1814 to 1818 she lived at Ormeley Lodge, Ham.[5] She was an aunt of the novelist Lucy Bethia Walford.[6] Sinclair then began to write independently, her first works being children's books, prompted by an interest in her nephew, the Hon. George Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow. Her story of two anarchic children, in Holiday House, A Book for the Young, successfully engaged the imagination of her young readers. This work was a popular and notable example of the genre, for it departed from the moralising approach of other works for children in that period. It also encapsulates a fantasy tale of fairies and giants.[7] On the subject of children's literature, Sinclair remarks in her preface,[8] "But above all we never forget those who good humouredly complied with the constantly recurring petition of all young people in every generation, and in every house, — 'Will you tell us a story?'" Sinclair's activities in Edinburgh included charitable works such as the establishment of cooking depots in old and new Edinburgh, and the maintenance of a mission station at the Water of Leith. She was instrumental in securing seats for crowded thoroughfares, and she set the example in Edinburgh of instituting drinking fountains, one of which bore her name and stood at the city's West End before it was removed as an obstruction to trams in 1926. Sinclair is also noted as being the discoverer of Sir Walter Scott's authorship of "The Waverley Novels" which were originally written anonymously. Catherine Sinclair died on 6 August 1864 at Kensington Vicarage, the residence of her brother, Archdeacon John Sinclair, and was interred in the burial ground of St. John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh. Her portrait was drawn in crayons by James Archer, R.S.A. (cf. Cat. Third Loan Exhib. No. 620).[4] Catherine died unmarried. SiblingsSir George Sinclair, 2nd Baronet, John Sinclair (1797–1875), and William Sinclair (1804–1878) were her brothers. RecognitionA monument, in the style of an Eleanor cross and designed by David Bryce,[9] was erected to her memory on the SE corner of St Colme Street in Edinburgh's New Town (just north of Charlotte Square), very close to her childhood home. The inscription reads, "She was a friend of all children and through her book 'Holiday House' speaks to them still."[8] The monument was modelled loosely on the Scott Monument, to which she had been a major contributor of funds. WorksMiss Sinclair wrote brightly and wittily, and displayed much skill in characterisation and description. Several of her books were popular in America. Undated and early works of Miss Sinclair's are: Charlie Seymour; Lives of the Cæsars, or the Juvenile Plutarch; Holiday House: A Book for the Young (written in 1839 and once very popular with children); Modern Superstition; and Memoirs of the English Bible.[10] Her other principal works are:[11]
References
1. ^Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1800 2. ^edinburgh Post Office Directory 1810 3. ^Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1830 4. ^{{cite web|last=Mitchell|first=Charlotte|title=Catherine Sinclair|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com|work=DNB|publisher=Oxford University Press|accessdate=21 August 2011}} 5. ^{{cite book |first1=James |last1=Green |first2=Silvia |last2=Greenwood |title=Ham and Petersham As It Was |publisher=Hendon Publishing |year=1980|oclc=16604168|isbn=0860670570}} (number 20) 6. ^ODNB entry for Walford, Lucy Bethia. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Pay-walled. 7. ^{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Robin Anne|title=Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy: Overviews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jKr0jWY8FLkC&pg=PA264|accessdate=20 November 2010|volume=1|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-33591-4|page=264|chapter=The creation of Literature for the Young.}} 8. ^1 {{cite web|url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/SWE/TBI/TBIIssue7/Alison.html|title=Towards an Overview of Scottish Children's Literature from 1823 to 2010|last=Alison|first=Jim|accessdate=20 November 2010}} 9. ^Transactions of the Caledonian Society:Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland 10. ^1 2 {{cite DNB|wstitle = Sinclair, Catherine|first = Thomas Wilson |last = Bayne|authorlink =Thomas Wilson Bayne|volume = 52|quote=sources: [Scotsman, 7 Aug. 1864; Gent. Mag. 1864, ii. 654; Archdeacon Sinclair's Memoir of Sir John Sinclair; Anderson's Scottish Nation; information from Mr. Cuninghame Steele, advocate, Edinburgh.]}} 11. ^{{cite book|last=Shattock|first=Joanne|title=The Cambridge bibliography of English literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zc6BnY4UQmIC&pg=PA2192|accessdate=20 November 2010|date=2000-03-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39100-9|page=2192}}
External links{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=37692813}}
8 : 19th-century Scottish writers|1800 births|1864 deaths|Scottish children's writers|Scottish women novelists|Writers from Edinburgh|19th-century British women writers|19th-century Scottish novelists |
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