Harriet Raikes
19th-century English mystery writer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harriet Raikes (2 August 1808 – 4 October 1890) was an English author, whose 1849 book The Marriage Contract was the first recorded murder mystery novel in English by a woman.[citation needed]
Raikes was born in London, the daughter of Thomas Raikes the Younger and Sophia Maria Bayly.[1][2] Her father was a London merchant and banker, and the son of Thomas Raikes the Elder, also a merchant and banker and Governor of the Bank of England from 1797–9. Her mother was the daughter of plantation owner and politician Nathaniel Bayly.
Her father became a famous diarist and dandy traveller in Europe, meeting the highest celebrities of his times. In 1861, Raikes edited her father's correspondence with the 2nd Duke of Wellington.[3]
She died in 1890 in Versailles, Yvelines.[2]
Bibliography
- The Marriage Contract (Vol. I) (1849). London: Richard Bentley.
- The Marriage Contract (Vol. 2) (1849). London: Richard Bentley.
