Agnes Loudon

Agnes Loudon was the only child of Jane Webb Loudon, English writer of popular manuals on botany and gardening, as well as gothic and early science fiction, and her husband John Claudius Loudon, a Scottish botanist and author. She is said to have been "a pretty, clever girl; sometimes visited, in Edinburgh, the daughters of Robert Chambers, one of whom became Lady Priestley. In London, was early allowed by her widowed mother to take part in the receptions, conversazioni, and parties held at the Loudon home -- social events attended by all the celebrities of the day." She married Markham Spofforth, a barrister and political agent. In 1845, aged about 11, she published her first story, "The Lost Gloves, or We Shall See: A Story for Little Girls." She went on to publish the collections Tales for Young People (1846) and Tales of School Life (1850). She died at age 32.