Ada Buisson

Ada Buisson (26 March 1839 – 27 December 1866) was an English author and novelist remembered today for her ghost stories.

Ada Buisson, c. 1866

Biography

Ada Buisson was born in Battersea in Surrey, the third-born child of French-born merchant Jean François (aka 'John Francis') Buisson (1797–1871) and his English wife Dorothy Jane (née Smither; 1817–1852).[1][2] Her eldest sibling was Leontine, who later became a teacher, trade union organiser, suffragist and campaigner for women's rights in Queensland in Australia.[3] Her father was declared bankrupt in 1842, and in about 1850 she and her family moved to Brighton,[1][4] where her mother died in 1852. From 1854 to 1855, along with her sisters Leontine and Irma, she studied Moral Philosophy and Natural History at the women-only Bedford College in London.[5]

Ada Buisson died in 1866 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, aged 27.[1]

Work

During her short lifetime Buisson published one novel, Put to the Test (1865), published by John Maxwell.[1] The remainder of her work, consisting of a second novel, A Terrible Wrong: A Novel (1867), published by T. C. Newby, and various short stories were published shortly after her early death. Various of her writings appeared in Belgravia, a magazine edited by her friend the novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon,[1] whom she met through Braddon's husband, Buisson's publisher John Maxwell. Buisson's writings were later mistakenly ascribed to Braddon by Montague Summers, the noted authority on Gothic literature.[1]

Buisson's tale "The Ghost's Summons", published posthumously in Belgravia (January 1868),[6] has been anthologised in collections of ghost stories.[7][8][9] A collection of all five of her ghost stories, originally printed in Belgravia, was published in 2022 as The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales.[10][11]

References
  1. Ada Buisson (1839–1866) Archived 6 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Victorian Research: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901
  2. Ada Buisson, 1841 Census for England and Wales, Ancestry.com (subscription required) Archived 16 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Leontine Cooper". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  4. Ada Buisson, 1851 Census for England and Wales, Ancestry.com (subscription required) Archived 16 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Ada Buisson, Royal Holloway and Bedford College Student Registers 1849–1931, Ancestry.com (subscription required) Archived 16 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Moore, Tara (2009). "Ghost Stories at Christmas". Victorian Christmas in Print: 81–98. doi:10.1057/9780230623330_5. ISBN 978-1-349-37998-9. Retrieved 18 July 2022. Ada Buisson, "The Ghost's Summons," Belgravia 4 (January 1868): 358–63.
  7. Moore, Tara (Ed.) "The Ghost's Summons" Archived 16 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine, The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume One, Valancourt Books (2016), ISBN 978-1943910564
  8. Lamb, Hugh. Tales from A Gas-lit Graveyard, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York (1979), ISBN 0-486-43429-X
  9. "The Ghost's Summons" in The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Volume 2, Wimbourne Books (2018), ISBN 0992982855.
  10. "The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales (Paperback)". Elliott Bay Book Company. 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  11. Buisson, Ada. The Baron's Coffin and Other Disquieting Tales Archived 24 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Snuggly Books (2022) ISBN 978-1-64525-108-8
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