Margracia Loudon

Margracia Ryves was born around 1788 at Castle Ryves, near Knocklong, County Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of William Ryves, a landowner, and his wife, Frances Catherine Ryves, author of Cumbrian Legends; or, Tales of Other Times (1812). In 1830, she married Charles Loudon, a physician, and they settled in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England.^[1][2]

Loudon was a popular novelist before turning to political writing. Her Philanthropic Economy (1835) became famous for its opposition to the Corn Laws, and actually predated the founding of the Anti-Corn Law League (1838). Her next work, The Light of Mental Science (1845), was influenced by phrenology. Her final non-fiction work, The Voices of Bulgaria (1846), focused on the plight of Christians in Ottoman-occupied Bulgaria and featured her own translations from Bulgarian.^[1]

She died in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England in 1860.^[1]

• First Love: A Novel (1830)^[3][2]
• Fortune-Hunting: A Novel (1832)^[2]
• Dilemmas of Pride (1833)^[2]
• The Fortunes of Woman (1849)^[2]
• Maternal Love: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1849.^[3][2]

• Philanthropic Economy, or the Philosophy of Happiness, Practically Applied to the Social, Political, and Commercial Relations of Great Britain (1835)^[4]
• Corn Laws: Selections from Mrs Loudon's Philanthropic Economy (1842)^[4]
• The Light of Mental Science (1845)^[2][4]
• The Voices of Bulgaria (1846)^[4]