author
Anna Benneson McMahan
A widely traveled American writer and lecturer, she turned her love of literature into vivid books about Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Browning, and the places connected with their lives. Her work blends literary study with the eye of a traveler who wanted readers to see these worlds for themselves.
1 Audiobook
Shakespeare's Christmas Gift to Queen Bess
by Anna Benneson McMahan
About the author
Born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1846, Anna Benneson McMahan became an American writer, lecturer, and literary guide whose work often connected famous authors with the landscapes and cities that shaped them. She was active in study-class work and also wrote for the Chicago Tribune, building a career around making literature feel lively and approachable.
After her husband's death, she traveled through Europe and drew on those journeys in a series of books about major English poets and writers. Her published works include studies linked to Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, showing a strong interest in places where literature and history meet.
McMahan died in 1919, but her books still offer a window into an earlier style of literary travel writing—part criticism, part biography, and part guided tour. For listeners who enjoy classic authors and the stories behind them, her writing has an inviting, curious spirit.