author
Catherine Sinclair
1800–1864
Remembered for bringing more liveliness and mischief into children's fiction, this Scottish writer also left a mark through practical philanthropy in Edinburgh. Her best-known book, Holiday House, helped move children's stories away from heavy-handed moral lessons toward something closer to real childhood.
2 Audiobooks
Modern Flirtations: A Novel
by Catherine Sinclair
Holiday House: A Series of Tales
by Catherine Sinclair
About the author
Born in Edinburgh in 1800, Catherine Sinclair was a Scottish novelist, children's writer, and travel writer, and the daughter of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster. After helping her father as a secretary in his later years, she built a literary career of her own and published widely in fiction and nonfiction.
She is best known today for Holiday House (1839), a children's book often noted for its energetic, unruly young characters and for stepping away from the sternly moral style common in earlier writing for children. Reference works also credit her with a wide range of other books, including novels, essays, and travel writing.
Sinclair was also known for charitable work in Edinburgh. Records about her life highlight gifts such as public drinking fountains and seating, showing the same practical, outward-looking spirit that appears in accounts of her writing and public work. She died in 1864.