{{short description|Irish novelist and poet (1856–1917)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox writer | name = Jane Barlow | image = Jane Barlow by Lafayette.jpg | imagesize = | alt = | caption = A portrait of Jane Barlow from a photograph by Lafayette Studio (1903). | pseudonym = Felix Ryark<br>Antares Skorpios | birth_name = Jane Barlow | honorific_suffix = D.Litt | birth_date = {{Birth date|1856|10|17|df=yes}} | birth_place = Dollymount, Clontarf, County Dublin, Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1917|04|17|1856|10|17|df=yes}} | death_place = Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland | resting_place = Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin | occupation = Writer | notable_works = ''Irish Idylls''<br>''Kerrigan's Quality''<br>''Strangers at Lisconnell'' | alma_mater = Trinity College Dublin | nationality = Irish | genre = | signature = Jane Barlow Signature.svg | signature_alt = Jane Barlow }} [[File:Sarah purser, ritratto di miss jane barlow, d. lii, 1894 (no frame).jpg|thumb|A portrait of Jane Barlow as painted by her friend, Irish painter Sarah Purser, in 1894. The painting is held by Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.]] '''Jane Barlow''' (17 October 1856 – 17 April 1917) was an Irish writer, noted for her novels and poems describing the lives of the Irish peasantry, chiefly about Lisconnell and Ballyhoy, in relation to both landlords and the Great Famine.
== Life == Barlow was the second child and eldest daughter of Rev. James William Barlow, vice-provost of Trinity College Dublin. Born in Dollymount, Clontarf, County Dublin, she spent most of her life living in Raheny, then a village in County Dublin, in the house in the townland of Ballyhoy which then was called "The Cottage": {{Blockquote|The house was known by various names over the years, as "Ballyhoy", "The Cottage" and "Raheny House". Built in the 18th century, originally with a thatched roof, another wing was added in the 1840s. [...] In 1986, it became the Garda Siochána Retirement Home and the original house was incorporated into the new additions.<ref name=Cottage>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content/YourCouncil/LocalAreaServices/NorthCentralArea/NorthCentralAreaCommittee/Documents/North%20Central%20Area%20Committee%20Agenda%20for%20February.pdf |title=Notification of the North Central Area Committee Dublin, February 2013, page 18. |access-date=5 April 2017 |archive-date=6 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406110302/http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content/YourCouncil/LocalAreaServices/NorthCentralArea/NorthCentralAreaCommittee/Documents/North%20Central%20Area%20Committee%20Agenda%20for%20February.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=bar>{{cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|page= 12|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and MacMillan|isbn= 0-7171-2945-4}}</ref><ref name=IT/>}}
She was educated by the family's governess and her father. She became proficient in French and German, and was a talented classical scholar and an accomplished pianist. She travelled much throughout Ireland, and in her twenties visited Italy, France, Greece, and Turkey.<ref name=bi>[http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do;jsessionid=0C64A07F356AC29A1E8269BCCE47182F?articleId=a0374 Dictionary of Irish Biography]</ref>
"Miss Barlow" had great success with the collection of stories ''Irish Idylls'' (1892). Running into nine editions, it was read in France, Germany, Britain, and America. When Trinity College Dublin began to grant degrees to women, Barlow was one of the first "to receive the highest honorary distinction that ancient seat of learning could bestow", a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.).<ref name=":0" /> She was a contributor to the National Literary Society in Dublin and was friends with Katharine Tynan and Sarah Purser, who painted her portrait in 1894.<ref name=bi/>
After the death of her father in 1913 she and her siblings moved to Bray, County Wicklow. By this time, she was suffering from poor health and low spirits, but she continued with her writing.
Barlow was a member of the Society for Psychical Research for more than 25 years.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=1917|title=Obituary. Miss Jane Barlow, D.Litt.|journal=Journal of the Society for Psychical Research|volume=18|issue=337|pages=49}}</ref> Shortly before her death, she was elected to its Committee of Reference and Publication.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1917|title=Meetings of the Council|journal=Journal of the Society for Psychical Research|volume=18|issue=335|pages=12}}</ref>
=== Death ===
Barlow died on 17 April 1917, in Bray.<ref name=IT/><ref name=":0" /><ref name=grave>[http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/dublin/photos/tombstones/1mj/mt-jerome-68/target122.html Photo No.10123] on Ireland Genealogy Projects.</ref> In its glowing obituary (18 April 1917), ''The Irish Times'' reported nothing of her health, nor a cause of death.<ref name=IT/>
Barlow is buried with her father, mother, and one of her sisters at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.<ref name=grave/>
== Works == Barlow published under her own name and under the pseudonym Felix Ryark. She co-wrote with her father under the pseudonym Antares Skorpios.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction|last=Fennell|first=Jack|publisher=Tramp Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-9997008-5-0|pages=261}}</ref> Barlow's novels and poetry collections include:
* ''History of a World of Immortals Without a God'' (McGee, 1891), as Antares Skorpios<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction|last=Fennell|first=Jack|publisher=Tramp Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-9997008-5-0|pages=126}}</ref> * ''Bog-land Studies'' (Unwin, 1892) * ''Irish Idylls'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1892) — went into nine editions. Illustrations by Clifton Johnson * ''The End of Elfintown'' (Macmillan, 1894) — fairy poetry illustrated by Laurence Housman, {{LCCN|02006329}} * ''Kerrigan's Quality'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1894) — with 8 illustrations * ''The Battle of the Frogs and Mice'' (Methuen, 1894) — a translation of the Greek mock-epic Batrachomyomachia with illustrations by Francis Donkin Bedford * ''Strangers at Lisconnell, a Second Series of Irish Idylls'' (1895) * ''Maureen's Fairing, and Other Stories'' (Dent, 1895) — illustrations by Bertha Newcombe * ''Mrs. Martin's Company, and Other Stories'' (Dent, 1896) * ''A Creel of Irish Stories'' (Methuen, 1897) * ''From the East unto the West'' (Methuen, 1898) * ''From the Land of the Shamrock'' (Methuen, 1900) — short stories * ''Ghost-Bereft, with Other Stories and Studies in Verse'' (Smith, Elder & Co., 1901) * ''The Founding of Fortunes'' (Methuen, 1902) * ''By Beach and Bog Land'' (Unwin, 1905) * ''Irish Neighbours'' (Hutchinson, 1907) * ''The Mockers, and Other Verses'' (Allen, 1908) * ''A Strange Land'' (Hutchinson, 1908), as Felix Ryark — a "lost race" tale<ref name=SFE>[http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/barlow_jane The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]</ref> * ''Irish Ways'' (Allen, 1909) — illustrations by Warwick Goble * ''Mac's Adventures'' (Hutchinson, 1911) — dedicated to Algernon Charles Swinburne * ''Flaws, a Novel'' (Hutchinson, 1911) * ''Doings and Dealings'' (Hutchinson, 1913) * ''Between Doubting and Daring'' (Blackwell, 1916) * ''In Mio's Youth'' (Hutchinson, 1917)
In the United States, Barlow's works were published by Dodd, Mead & Co.
=== ''A Bunch of Lavender'' ===
Barlow wrote a play titled ''A Bunch of Lavender'', staged by the Theatre of Ireland on December 18th, 1911.<ref name=bi></ref><ref name=EAA>{{cite book |last=Desprez |first=Frank |date=1913 |title=The Era Annual — Dramatic & Musical |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_era-almanack-and-annual-the-dramatic-and-musical_1913/page/92/mode/2up |location=London |publisher=Open Court Publishing Company |page=92 |access-date=2025-02-21}}</ref><ref name=gtboi>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Stephen James Meredith |date=1912 |title=A Guide to book on Ireland |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetobooksonir00brow/page/312/mode/2up |location=Dublin |publisher=Hodges, Figgis & Co. |page=313 |access-date=2025-02-21}}</ref> Because it was not a success, the play was never published.<ref name=bi></ref>
== References == {{Reflist |refs= <ref name=IT> "Death of Miss Jane Barlow". ''The Irish Times''. 18 April 1917. Page 2.</ref> }}
== External links == * {{Gutenberg author |id=6301| name=Jane Barlow}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jane Barlow}} * {{Librivox author |id=9908}} * {{LCAuth|n50017802|Jane Barlow|16|ue}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Jane}} Category:1856 births Category:Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Category:People from Clontarf, Dublin Category:People from Raheny Category:19th-century Irish writers Category:20th-century Irish writers Category:19th-century Irish women writers Category:20th-century Irish women writers Category:19th-century Irish novelists Category:20th-century Irish novelists Category:Irish women novelists Category:Irish women poets Category:1917 deaths Category:Writers from County Dublin Category:19th-century Irish short story writers Category:20th-century Irish short story writers Category:Irish women short story writers