Beck, Elizabeth Louisa (c. 1862–1931)

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Beck, Elizabeth Louisa (c. 1862–1931)

Canadian romance-fiction writer. Name variations: Eliza Louisa Moresby Beck; (pseudonyms) Lily Adams Beck or L. Adams Beck or Lily Moresby Adams, E. Barrington and Louis Moresby. Born Elizabeth Louisa Moresby in England, c. 1862;diedinKyoto, Japan, Jan 3, 1931; dau. of Jane Willis (Scott) Moresby and John Moresby (navy admiral); married.

As an admiral's daughter, lived in India, China, Burma, Tibet and Japan, leading to a love of Oriental culture and history, which informed her novels; wrote under 3 pseudonyms (oriental historical romance under Louis Moresby, historical under E. Barrington, and books about oriental culture as Lily Adams Beck or L. Adams Beck); settled in Canada (1922); published 1st book (1922); produced more than 25 books in next 9 years; also assisted father with his memoirs; returned to Japan near the end of her life; works include The Ninth Vibration and Eight Other Stories (1922), Dreams and Delights (1922), The Key of Dreams (1922), The Chaste Diana (1923), The Divine Lady (1924); Glorious Apollo (1925), The Treasure of Ho (1925), The Thunderers (1927), The Garden of Vision (1929), The Irish Beauties (1931) and The Great Romantic (1933).