Caroline Clive

Caroline Clive (1801-1873) was an English poet and novelist. Born in London, Clive was the daughter of Edmund Meysey-Wigley, Esq., M.P. for Worcester, and Anna Maria Meysey. From the age of three onward, Clive suffered from physical disabilties brought on by a sudden illness. In 1840, she published IX Poems to critical acclaim and popular success, albeit under the pseudonym "V." That same year, Clive married Reverend Archer Clive, with whom she raised a son and a daughter. Over the next decade, she published four more collections of poetry, including The Queen's Ball (1847) and Valley of the Rea (1851). In 1853, Clive published a sensational novel, Paul Ferroll (1855), an immediate commercial success. A pioneering work of detective fiction published years before the work of Wilkie Collins, Paul Ferroll marked the apotheosis of Clive's literary career. A sequel, Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife (1860), and another novel, John Grewold (1864), would follow.