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Anna Eliza Bray (25 December 1790 – 21 January 1883) was a British novelist. ==Biography== Anna Eliza Kempe was born in the parish of Newington, Surrey, on 25 December 1790, to John Kempe, a bullion porter in the Royal Mint, and Ann, daughter of James Arrow of Westminster. Kempe planned to be an actress, and her public appearance at the Bath Theatre was duly announced for 27 May 1815. She caught a severe cold on her journey, which prevented her appearance, and the opportunity was lost. In February 1818, she married Charles Alfred Stothard, son of the distinguished painter Thomas Stothard R.A.. They journeyed to France, and her first work consisted of ''Letters written during a Tour in Normandy, Brittany, &c., in 1818''.〔 As an artist, her husband was devoted to illustrating the sculptured monuments of Great Britain, but on 28 May 1821 he died from a fall off a ladder in Bere Ferrers church, Devon, while collecting materials for his work, ''The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain''. She had one child by him, a daughter (born 29 June 1821, died on 2 February 1822). In 1823 she produced a memoir of her late husband, and she undertook to complete the book he had left unfinished, with the aid of her brother Alfred John Kempe. She eventually achieved this aim and the work was published in 1832. At her death she left to the British Museum the original drawings of his great work.〔 Many years later she provided the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' and ''Blackwood's Magazine'' with reminiscences of her father-in-law, Thomas Stothard, R.A., and these were afterwards (1851) expanded into a life of that artist.〔 A year or two after Stothard died, Anna Eliza married Edward Atkyns Bray, the vicar of Tavistock. She then began writing novels, and from 1826 to 1874, produced at least a dozen. Some of these, such as ''The Talba, or the Moor of Portugal'' dealt with foreign life, but she based her most popular novels on the principal families of the counties of Devon and Cornwall, such as the Trelawneys of Trelawne, the Pomeroys, and the Courtenays of Walreddon. They were historical novels, and proved so popular that they were issued in a set of ten volumes by Longmans in 1845-6, and were reprinted by Chapman & Hall as late as 1884. Her second husband died in 1857, and she then moved to London, where she selected and edited some of his poetry and sermons, before returning to original work. Her last years were embittered by a report that during a visit to Bayeux in 1816, she stole a piece of the Bayeux Tapestry. However, her character was cleared by correspondence and leading articles that appeared in the ''Times''. She died in London on 21 Jan. 1883. Her autobiography, to 1843, was published by her nephew, John A. Kempe, in 1884, but it is sketchy, and less than accurate. It depicts an accomplished and kindly woman, proud of her own creations, and enthusiastic in praise of the literary characters she knew.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Anna Eliza Bray」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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