L.E.L.-A+Controversial+Biography

Letitia Elizabeth Landon, (1802-1838) often referred to as L.E.L., was a prolific and talented poet and novelist. She lived a life full of drama and controversy and several elements of her biography remain disputed among scholars. The two most important disputed elements are the nature of her relationship with her William Jerdan, editor of the Literary Gazette, and the circumstances of her mysterious death in Cape Coast in West Africa swiftly following her marriage to George Maclean. L.E.L. has been a focus of feminist criticism both due to her important role within the poetess school of poetry, but also because she was a woman who lived alone and supported her family through her writing, and as a result was often the target of rumours and moral judgments from the press. Sources: The two most important primary sources for the study of L.E.L.'s life are her letters and her poetry. Landon was a prolific letter writer and the collection of her letters edited by Sypher S.J. in 2001 is 232 pages in length. Landon was even more prolific in her poetic writings than in her letters, having written over 1000 poems and three novels over the course of her life. (Landon 448) A great primary source for information about her death is //The Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L.// by Laman Blanchard published in 1841 which analyses the circumstances of her death in some detail. Of great use for any study of Landon's relationship with Jerdan is Jerdan's 4 volume autobiography //Autobiography: with his literary, political, and social reminiscences and correspondence during the last fifty years.// //Letitia Landon: The Woman Behind L.E.L.// by Glennis Stephenson is widely recognized to be one of the best modern biographies of Landon's life and was described by one critic as offering “the most thoroughly researched, penetrating, and comprehensive analysis of 'L.E.L.' that scholarship in Victorian women's writing has yet produced.” (Furr 160) //Poisoned Lives// is an interesting dual biography of the lives of L.E.L. and George Maclean that takes a generally positive view point on their relationship. Letitia Elizabeth Early Life: Landon was born in 1802 to John Landon and Catherine Jane in Chelsea. She was the eldest of three children. At age 5 Letitia began attending Miss Rowden's school, until in 1809 her family moved to Trevor Park in East Barnet where her father became involved in model farming. The Landon family moved back to London in 1815 as a result of a collapse in agricultural demand following the end of the Napoleonic wars. Letitia soon got to know their new neighbour, William Jerdan who was the editor of the Literary Gazette. (O.N.B.) A New Career and the Beginnings of Scandal: Landon's published her first poem, “Rome,” in the Literary Gazette in 1820 and in 1821 she published her first book of poetry entitled The Fate of Adelaide: A Swiss Tale of Romance. While this book received some favourable reviews, its publisher went out of business soon after its publication thus hampering its success. (O.N.B.) It is uncertain when exactly Landon and Jerdan's relationship first transformed from a friendship to a romantic affair. However, since the eldest of their three illegitimate children, Ella Stuart, was baptised in 1824 the affair probably began no later than 1823 when Landon was 21 years. (Lawford) Jerdan was 20 years older than Landon, was married with children and was also known as someone who “drank excessively, was forever falling into debt, and as a critic was not respected by his intellectual contemporaries.” (Lawford) Despite his personal failings, Jerdan was arguably the most powerful literary critic in the 1820s within London and he published large amounts of Landon's poetry, under the initials L.E.L., and always gave her extremely favourable reviews. (Lawford) Landon also became Jerdan's chief reviewer at the Literary Gazette, a position of some influence, though since the reviews were published anonymously it is unclear which belong to Landon. Landon's second book of poetry, The Improvisatrice and other Poems was published in 1824 and went through 6 editions in its first year. (O.N.B.) In that same year, John Landon died, leaving the Landon family dependent on Letitia for financial support. Landon published another book of poetry, The Troubadour: Poetical Sketches of Modern Pictures and Historical Sketches, in 1825 and was quickly becoming known as a prolific and talented poet. In 1826 Landon's grandmother, whom she had been living with, died and she moved in the attic of Miss Rowden's, her old school. (O.N.B.)

A Thriving Literary Career: Landon continued to write very prolifically, publishing The Golden Violet in 1827 and The Venetian Bracelet in 1829. During the same period Landon frequently edited gift books, or in some instances writing the entire contents of the gift book herself. At the same time as she continued to thrive as a literary figure and poet in London, rumours began to swirl around her. Many of these rumours originated at The Wasp, a short lived satirical magazine dedicated to celebrity gossip. (O.N.B.) While this gossip frequently centered around Landon's relationship with Jerdan, Landon was generally able to deflect these rumours to such an extent that until recently most scholarship concluded that the rumours were indeed baseless, as indeed the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography still does (O.N.B. & Lawford). In 1831 Landon published her first novel, Romance and Reality, which was applauded by some for its witty social commentary as opposed to the often rather sentimental nature of her poetry. (O.N.B.)

Gossip around Landon intensified during her relationship with John Forster, editor of The Examiner, which began in 1834. Forster after investigating the rumours and concluding them to be false, proposed to marry her in order to offer her his “protection”. Landon said no and then broke up with him, ostensibly to protect him from her bad reputation, but as indicated in a private letter it was more likely due to his “entire want of delicacy,” and “imperious and overbearing temper.” (O.N.B.) In October of 1936 Landon met George Maclean at a party. Maclean was the governor of the British post Cape Coast on the Gold Coast. They quickly reached a point of unofficial engagement, until Maclean got cold feet and went to Scotland for six months. Under pressure from Landon's friends Maclean agreed to marry Landon and on June 7, 1838 they were married in a private ceremony. (O.N.B) Landon's relationship with Jerdan had ended at some point between 1834 and 1837, when exactly is unclear. (Lawford) Landon left London for Cape Coast with Maclean on July 5, 1838 and arrived August 16. Two months later, on October 15, 1838, Landon was found dead in her room, slumped against the wall with a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. (O.N.B.)"An inquest determined cause of death to be accidental overdose of prussic acid, and the body was quickly buried without an autopsy." (Orlando) Landon had been taking prussic acid as medicine against spasms and fainting spells. She also suffered from fluctuating moods, insomnia and most likely depression. (Landon) But the suspicious circumstances around the death and inquest, including signs that the inquest reports had been tampered with and a declaration by her doctor that she had never had access to prussic acid, led to speculation in London that she had either been murdered or committed suicide. (Orlando)

L.E.L. has in recent years been the subject of much feminist scholarship "as feminist critics have questioned the historical processes and aesthetic standards that led to her exclusion from the literary canon," throughout most of the 20th century, in spite of her enormous popularity and influence during the Victorian period. (Orlando)

Works Cited: Blanchard, Laman. Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1841. Byron, Glennis. “Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1802–1838),” //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2011.

Brown, Susan, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, eds. “L. E. L.” within //Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present.// Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Online, 2006.

Furr, Derek, “Stephenson, Glennis. Letitia Landon: the woman behind L.E.L.” Victorian Studies 40.1 (Autumn 1996): 160-162

Landon, Mike. “The Death of L.E.L.-A Retrospective Inquest.” //Women's Writing// 16.3 (December 2009): 445-451.

Lawford, Cynthia. “'Thou Shalt Bid Thy Fair Hands Rove': L.E.L.'s Wooing of Sex, Pain, Death and the Editor.” //Romanticism on the Net// 29.30. (Spring 2003)

Sypher, F. J., ed, and Letitia Elizabeth Landon, “Letters By Letitia Elizabeth Landon.” U.S.A.: Scholars' Facsims. & Reprs., 2001. Biography Index Past and Present (H.W. Wilson). Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

Watt, Julie. //Poisoned Lives: The Regency Poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) and British Gold Coast Administrator George Maclean.// Sussex Academic Press, 2010.

William, Jerdan. Autobiography, with his literary, political, and social reminiscences and correspondence during the last fifty years. London : A. Hall, Virtue & Co., 1852-1853.

Wolfson, Susan J. "Poisoned Lives: The Regency Poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) And British Gold Coast Administrator George Maclean." Wordsworth Circle 42.4 (2011): 287-290. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.