Jane Porter

The Scottish Chiefs - Part I (Dodo Press) Jane Porter

Jane Porter (1776-1850), was a British author. She was born in the Bailey in Durham City. It was said that she used to rise at four in the morning in order to read and write. She read the whole of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene while still a child. Her novel Thaddeus of Warsaw (1803) is one of the earliest examples of the historical novel, and it went through a dozen editions. It was based on eye-witness accounts from Polish refugees of the doomed independence struggle of the 1790s. The Scottish Chiefs (1810) a novel about William Wallace, was also a success, and it has remained popular with Scottish children. She wrote a number of novels, as well as two plays, which were less successful. She also contributed to various periodicals. Her other works include: The Pastor's Fireside: An Historical Romance (1815), Switzerland (1819), Tales Round a Winter Hearth (1826) and Coming Out (1828).