Vernon Lee (1856–1935)

Vernon Lee was the pen name of Violet Paget, born in Boulogne, France to British parents traveling on the continent. She was a half-sister of poet Eugene Lee-Hamilton, from whose name she derived her pseudonym. She was a skilled harpsichord player, and her love of music inspired her first major work, Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy (1880). However, she is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction, which many critics consider the best of the 19th century. She also wrote more than a dozen volumes of essays on art, literary theory, music, and travel. In middle age, she became a supporter of women’s suffrage, a pacifist, and an expert in international relations. As a member of the Union of Democratic Control, she wrote Peace with Honour: Controversial Notes on the Settlement (1915) about the group's proposals for an accord with Germany to end World War I.