Lucy Clifford better known as Mrs. W. K. Clifford, was a British novelist and journalist, and the wife of William Kingdon Clifford

William Kingdon Clifford

William Kingdon Clifford FRS was an English mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his honour, with interesting applications in contemporary mathematical physics...

.

Biography

Lucy Clifford was born Lucy Lane in London, the daughter of John Lane of Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

. She married the mathematician and philosopher William Kingdon Clifford in 1875. After his death in 1879, she earned a prominent place in English literary life as a novelist, and later as a dramatist. Her best-known story, Mrs Keith's Crime (1885), was followed by several other volumes, such as Aunt Anne (1892). She also wrote The Last Touches and Other Stories (1892) and Mere Stories (1896); and a play, A Woman Alone (1898). She is perhaps most often remembered, however, as the author of The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise (1882), a collection of stories written for her children.

Lucy Clifford also wrote cinematic adaptations of her short stories and plays. At least two films were produced from her adaptations: The Likeness of the Night (1922) directed by Percy Nash, and Eve's Lover (1925) directed by Roy Del Ruth.

She had a wide circle of literary friends, amongst them Henry James

Henry James

Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....

. Her daughter Ethel Clifford (d. 1959), later Lady Dilke, having married Sir Fisher Wentworth Dilke, 4th Baronet

Dilke Baronets

The Dilke Baronetcy, of Sloane Street in Chelsea, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 22 January 1862 for the Liberal politician Charles Dilke. Apart from his political career, he played an important part in the international exhibititions in London in 1851 and...

 (1877–1944) in 1905, was a published poet.

Lucy Lane Clifford died in 1929, and was buried alongside her husband in Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....

in London.

In 2004 Gowan Dawson described Lucy's efforts to uphold the reputation of Clifford after his death:

...Clifford's disconsolate widow and two young daughters had been left totally unprovided for, and, notwithstanding a subsequent Testimonial Fund and Civil List pension, it was necessary for Lucy Clifford, who now owned the copyright of her late husband's works, to maximize the potential sales of his posthumous publications by not only by keeping Clifford in the public eye, but also by ensuring that it was a generally positive (and thus marketable) portayal of him that was presented.

External links

• William and Lucy Clifford
• Biography of Lucy Clifford by Monty Chisholm
• A guide to the Mrs. W. K. Clifford Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library