Adela E. (Adela Elizabeth Richards) Orpen

Adela E. Orpen, born Adela Elizabeth Richards on February 3, 1855, was an Irish writer whose life crossed continents. According to the available biographical record, she was born on a plantation in Virginia in the United States and was the only surviving child of Edward Moore Richards and Sarah Elizabeth Tisdale.

She wrote fiction and nonfiction, and the surviving catalog of her work shows a notably varied career. Books associated with her include novels such as Perfection City and The Jay-Hawkers, along with works like Stories About Famous Precious Stones. That mix suggests a writer comfortable moving between storytelling, history, and curious factual subjects.

Orpen died in 1927. While some details of her later life are less easy to confirm from the sources I found, the overall picture is of a prolific late-19th- and early-20th-century author whose books reflect broad interests and an international background.