Louisa Murray

Louisa Annie Murray (23 May 1818 – 27 July 1894) was an English-born Canadian author. Early life Murray was born in Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, England, and was raised in County Wicklow in Ireland. Her father was Lieutenant Edward Murray and her mother, Louisa Rose Lyons, also came from a military family. She emigrated to Canada with her family in the 1840s because of the Great Famine; they settled on Wolfe Island (near Kingston, Ontario). Writing career While working as a schoolteacher, she published several pieces in various literary magazines, particularly the Literary Garland in Montreal. However, this practice of publishing in magazines resulted in several of her works being irretrievably lost: one was accidentally set on fire, while at least two others were not recovered after the magazines that were to publish them closed. Her novel Fauna was serialised due to the intercession of Susanna Moodie. This romantic description of Canadian life was published in the Literary Garland in 1851 and Mary S. Millar has noted that Murray defends the rights of Native Americans to preserve their culture from its domination by European values.