Sunday, August 26, 2007 Snipped from http://sundaytimes.lk/070826/Plus/pls12.html Maria Graham: The first female author to write on Ceylon in English During the 19th century there were three female authors of distinction who provided accounts of Ceylon in the English language - Maria Graham (1812), Constance Gordon-Cumming (1892), and Marianne North (1892). In addition, all of them were accomplished artists, especially North who had her own gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. That there were so few female 19th-century accounts of the island is not altogether surprising given the general paucity of female travellers and, to a lesser extent, female authors, during that period. The works of these female authors differ from those of their male counterparts - Bennett (1843), Cordiner (1807), Davy (1821), Forbes (1840), Knighton (1854), Percival (1803), Pridham (1849), Selkirk (1844), Skinner (1891), Sullivan (1854) and Tennent (1859) for example - in certain respects. The mission of many of the male authors was to promote the island as a commercial proposition for pioneers and investors, or to amass information on the new colony. The works of the female authors, generally being of the memoir type, were more personal and impressionistic, and their descriptions often demonstrate they were more observant than the males. Maria Graham (1786-1844) was a writer of travel and children's books, and a fine illustrator. Born in Scotland as Maria Dundas, her father, George Dundas, was one of many naval officers raised by the Dundas clan. In 1808, his life at sea finished, he was made head of the naval works at the British East India Company's dockyard in Bombay, and took Maria, then 23, with him. She fell in love with a naval officer, Thomas Graham and they married in India in 1809. In 1811 they returned to England, where Maria Graham published her first book, Journal of a Residence in India, which included her Ceylon visit. [snip] ============== ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India