Biography
Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (née Margaret Oliphant Wilson) was born April 4, 1828, and died June 20, 1897. She was a novelist and writer, with most of her work exploring the realities and implications of domestic life. On occasion, she also wrote about the supernatural.
Oliphant was born in Wallyford, Scotland and spent much of her childhood in Glasgow, among other cities across Scotland and England. She published her first novel, Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland, in 1849 at just twenty-one years old. Two years later, following the publishing of her second novel, Caleb Field, William Blackwood invited her to contribute to the self-titled Blackwood’s Magazine, and this significant professional connection persisted throughout Oliphant’s career.
Oliphant duplicated her middle name, becoming Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant, in 1852, when she married her cousin, stained-glass artist Frank Wilson Oliphant. Years later, following her husband’s death from tuberculosis, Oliphant began writing once more to support their three children. Though she was a successful author, familial difficulties and frequent tragedy in her personal life may have limited her drive; nevertheless, she continued writing for over thirty years. After the deaths of all three of her children, she eventually died in June 1897.
Below is a collection of Oliphant’s most notable Gothic novellas and short stories. Read at your own discretion—and please, enjoy.
Novellas & Short Stories by Margaret Oliphant
A Beleaguered City (1879)
The Lady’s Walk (1882)
Old Lady Mary (1884)
The Library Window (1896)
The Raven Post 