Oliphant, Margaret Oliphant (Wilson)

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Margaret Oliphant (Wilson) Oliphant, 1828–97, Scottish author. She was widowed at the age of 31 and subsequently supported her own three children and her brother and his family. Astonishingly prolific, she wrote many novels, including a series about life in a Scottish village called Chronicles of Carlingford (1863–76); the best novels in the series were Salem Chapel and Miss Marjoribanks. She wrote guidebooks; semihistorical works, such as The Makers of Modern Rome (1895); and biographies of Sheridan (1883) and her cousin Laurence Oliphant (1891), among others.

See her Days of My Life (1857), and her autobiography (1899).