Maria and Harriet Falconar

Maria and Harriet Falconar are British sisters who published joint collections of poems while in their teens in the late 1780s. They then disappeared from the historic record and little is known of their origins or future lives.^[1]

Marie Falconar was born in 1771, and Harriet in 1774. They may have been the daughters of^[2] Magnus Falconar who published medical texts in the 1780s .

Marie first appeared in print and had two poems published in the The European magazine and London review in 1786.

They jointly authored a volume of their Poems in 1788. The subscribers to the volume was headed by the Duke of Northumberland and included two Falconer names based in Nairn and Inverness. The poems were on such themes as Remorse and Fancy.^[2]

Another volume about the ethics of slavery entitled, On Slavery , followed the same year. This volume survives in the British Library and is available in e format. They were 17 and 14 at the time of its publication. The publisher was Egertons, Murray, and Johnson, of Whitehall, London.^[2]

In 1791, aged 20 and 17 they authored a volume called Poetic Laurels. The content of this volume suggests they were preparing for marriage and were aware it might limit their freedom to write. It is thought possible that they continued to write under married names and future research may reveal more work by them.^[2]

Bibliography

• Maria and Harriet Falconar: Poems (1788)
• Maria and Harriet Falconar: Poems on Slavery (1788) Text is held in The British Library, shelfmark: 1164.e.23 http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/falconar.htm
• Maria and Harriet Falconar: Poetic Laurels (1791)

References

1. ↑ Janet M. Todd, ed. (1987). A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800. Rowman & Allanheld. ISBN 978-0-8476-7125-0.
2. 1 2 3 4 Lonsdale, Roger (ed) (1990). Eighteenth Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology. Oxford University Press. pp. 451, 536. ISBN 0192827758. 

• Women of History database, Catherine Russell. Accessed 2016
• A Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland: Comprising Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes of Their Lives, and a Chronological Register of Their Publications, with the Number of Editions Printed; Including Notices of Some Foreign Writers Whose Works Have Been Occasionally Published in England Henry Colburn, 1816, Page 112
• Das gelehrte England, oder Lexikon der jetzlebenden Schriftsteller in Grosbritannien, Irland und Nord-Amerika, von Jahre 1770 bis 1790, David Reuss, 1791
• Bibliotheca Britannica, or a general index to British and foreign literature Authors [A - H], Volume 1 page 354 1824