Biography of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.)


Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.)

Date (from)	(Date to)	Event
14 August 1802		Born (Chelsea).
11 March 1820		First poem, 'Rome' published in Literary Gazette, edited by William Jerdan, her mentor.
1824		Wrote 'The Improvisatrice', first major poem.
1831		Wrote 'Romance and Reality', first novel.
October 1836		Met George Maclean.
7 June 1838		Married George Maclean (q.v.)
5 July 1838		Sailed for Cape Coast Castle.
1 August 1838		Arrived at Cape Coast Castle.
15 October 1838		Died, possibly from a self-adminstered overdose of prussic acid.
According to the DNB: 'As a poetess Letitia Elizabeth Landon can only rank as a gifted improvisatrice. She had too little culture, too little discipline, too low an ideal of her art, to produce anything of very great value.' Her work is now considered objectionably sentimental. Around 1830 she was briefly considered a serious literary portent, but this was less the case by the time she met Maclean. Although Metcalfe makes clear that he was no longer in love with her when they married, there is little ground for the later melodramatic speculations about her life - and death - at Cape Coast Castle.
Life of Letitia Elizabeth Landon ('Romantic Circles' article)