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Author: O'Brien, Mary

Biography:

O’BRIEN, Mary (fl 1785-90)

Very little is known for certain about this author, including whether she was Irish or English. Possibly she was the widow of Patrick O’Brien, a Dublin merchant who died in 1784, and she may have lived in London in the mid 1780s given the publication there of her Pious Incendiaries, a book attacking Lord Gordon and anti-Catholic sentiment. An undated manuscript by her is in the BL—"The Temple of Virtue. An Opera in Three Acts,” which she had sent to R. B. Sheridan (q.v.) for performance at Drury Lane.  The title page of her Political Monitor indicates that the poems were “published in England during the agitation of the regency”—that is, Nov. 1788-Mar. 1789. This probably means published in periodicals but no details have been found. An anonymous novel, Charles Henley, that is claimed by her on the title page of Political Monitor, was issued in London in early 1790.  One other work, The Fallen Patriot, a Comedy, was issued by W. Gilbert in Dublin in 1790. Thereafter Mary O’Brien falls silent. No records have been located on the various genealogical sites. (IWP 5 Oct. 2021; BL Add MS 25927; Dublin Evening Post 1 June 1790; ancestry.co.uk 5 Oct. 2021)

 

Books written (3):

London: for the author by S. Hooper, Stockdale, Egertons, and Richardson, 1785