{{Short description|English novelist (1830–1922)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} '''Mary Anna Needell''' (née Lupton, 1830–1922), was a popular English novelist, who usually wrote as '''Mrs. J. H. Needell'''. She was born at Vanbrugh Castle, Blackheath, Kent, now divided between the London boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham. Little has been discovered about her personal background or life.<ref name=Sutherland>John Sutherland: ''Longman Companion to Victorian Literature'', 2nd e. (Abingdon, Oxon./New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 463. {{ISBN|1408203901}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=X2KuBAAAQBAJ&q=Needell&pg=PR11 Retrieved 2 March 2015.]</ref>
==Married life== Mary Anna Lupton's father was John Lupton, described on her marriage certificate as a merchant. She was married at All Hallows, Bread Street on 4 May 1854 to John Hodder Needell (Netherbury, Dorset, 16 September 1814 – Beaminster, July 1881) of Allington, Dorset, son of Thomas Wallace Needell, also described as a merchant.<ref>Dorset Strays [http://www.opcdorset.org/Miscellaneous/DorsetStraysMarrsIZ.htm Retrieved 4 March 2015.]</ref><ref name="Ancestry site">{{Cite web |url=http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=ROOT_CATEGORY&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=ms_f-2_s&gsfn=John+Hodder&gsln=Needell&msbdy=1814&uidh=000 |title=John Hodder Needell |publisher=search.ancestry.com |accessdate=8 July 2016}}</ref>
J. H. Needell's business affairs seem to have been sporadic and unsuccessful. His calico printing and warehousing partnership with a certain William Gregory Langdon in London, Cheapside, is known to have ended in February 1848.<ref>''London Gazette'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=X2KuBAAAQBAJ&q=Needell&pg=PR11 Retrieved 2 March 2015.]</ref> He was involved in litigation with the Western Bank of Scotland over the insolvent firm of John Monteith and Co., in which he claimed to have retired as a partner in 1855, having "moved to the country" in 1852.<ref>''Report of Cases Decided at Nisi Prius and at the Crown Side on Circuit...'' (Dublin, 1860). [https://books.google.com/books?id=E2stAQAAMAAJ&dq=J.+H.+Needell&pg=PA462 Retrieved 8 March 2015.], p. 461 ff.</ref>
The Needells had a son, also called John Hodder Needell, and daughters called Flora Nicholetts, Kate, Beatrice and Marian. The last may be the same as a Mary Ann [sic] Needell, born in 1855. The family was living at Netherbury, Dorset at the time of the 1881 census. Mary Anna Needell's husband died at Beaminster and was buried at Allington.<ref name="Ancestry site"/>
==Writings== In a ''Who's Who'' entry in 1907, Mrs Needle stated she was "a student and writer up to the period of marriage; during a long married life of engrossing claims my literary production was suspended, to be resumed in 1881," i. e. after her husband's death.<ref name=Sutherland/>
Needell wrote at least twelve novels. They include ''Catherine Irving'' (anonymously, 1855), ''Stephen Ellicott's Daughter'' (c. 1880), ''Julian Karslake's Secret''* (1881),<ref>The titles marked with an asterisk were available as e-books in early 2015. They can be read free on the Internet Archive site [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Needell%2C%20J.%20H.%2C%20Mrs.%2C%20b.%201830%22%20AND%20%28J.%20H.%20Needell%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts%29 Retrieved 4 March 2015.]</ref> ''Lucia, Hugh, and Another''* (1884), also published in the United States and telling of "an 'ideal marriage' which becomes a painful trap".<ref name="Feminist">''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds (London, Batsford, 1990), p. 789. {{ISBN|0713458488}}.</ref> ''The Story of Philip Methuen'' (1886), said to be her most popular work,<ref name=Sutherland /> was followed by ''Noel Chetwynd's Fall'' (1888) and then ''Unequally Yoked'' (1891), about the marriage of a parson to a woman "beneath him" – called "a very inferior and somewhat unpleasing tale" by ''The Athenaeum'',<ref name=Sutherland /> but noted in recent times as featuring "a slum girl who grows in stature to match [her husband's] spirit."<ref name="Feminist" /> Later came ''Passing the Love of Women''* (1892), ''The Vengeance of James Vansittart'' (1895), ''The Honour of Vivien Bruce'' (1899) and ''Unstable as Water'' (1902). ''Ada Gresham. An Autobiography'' (1853) also appears to be fictional. It has "an odd unlikeable heroine and is interesting on birth and supporting a child alone."<ref name="Feminist"/><ref>Publication dates from British Library main catalogue [http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?ct=Next+Page&pag=nxt&indx=1&dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A(BLCONTENT)&frbg=&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1425320278805&srt=rank&ct=&mode=Basic&vl(488279563UI0)=any&dum=true&tb=t&indx=1&vl(freeText0)=Mrs.%20J.%20H.%20Needell&fn=search&vid=BLVU1. Retrieved 2 March 2015.]</ref>
Many novels Needell wrote after her husband's death reappeared, also in America.<ref>For example, see the advertisement for volumes of Harper's Franklin Square Library in ''The Methodist Quarterly Review'' Vol. 66, p. 796. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GCdGAQAAMAAJ&dq=J.+H.+Needell&pg=PA796 Retrieved 8 March 2015.]</ref> Some critics have noted influence from Charlotte Brontë.<ref name="Feminist"/> In addition, Needell contributed several short stories in periodicals and annuals. She is not thought to have published anything substantial after 1902.<ref name=Sutherland/>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Anna Needell}} *[http://thethird.freeforums.net/thread/995/john-hodder-needell-10-productions Golden Gale] (ten of her twelve novels)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Needell, Mary Anna}} Category:1830 births Category:1922 deaths Category:19th-century English women novelists Category:19th-century English novelists Category:20th-century English women novelists Category:Novelists from London Category:Writers from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Category:19th-century pseudonymous women writers Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers