Catherine Gore (1798–1861)

Catherine Gore, née Moody, was the daughter of Mary and Charles Moody, a wine merchant in East Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. She was educated at home and began writing poetry at an early age. After her father's death soon after her birth, the family moved to London. In 1823, she married Charles Arthur Gore, a British army officer who retired soon afterwards, with whom she had 10 children. The Gores lived mostly in Europe, where Mrs. Gore supported them by writing more than 60 novels, plays, and lyrics for popular songs, in addition to articles for journals. Her debut novel was Theresa Marchmont, or, The Maid of Honour, published in 1824. Her first play, The School for Coquettes (1831) was successfully produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London. Most of her novels were set in fashionable and wealthy households, a style she varied with travel writing and historical romances. Her best known works included Mothers and Daughters (1831) and Cecil; or The Adventures of a Coxcomb (1841). She received a substantial inheritance from a relative, but lost the money in a bank fraud in 1855. She died a few years later in England.