author
Frances Clare
A little-known Victorian writer of children's stories, remembered today through a small handful of late-19th-century books. Her surviving works suggest a taste for moral tales and imaginative storytelling aimed at young readers.
1 Audiobook
Stories jolly: stories new: stories strange & stories true : A series of new and original tales for boys and girls from six to fourteen years old
by H. C. (Henry Cadwallader) Adams, R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne, S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould, Fanny Barry, Frances Clare, Alice Corkran, George Manville Fenn, Agnes Giberne, Mrs. A. M. Goodhart, G. A. (George Alfred) Henty, Katharine S. (Katharine Sarah) Macquoid, Mrs. Molesworth, Helen A. Wilmot-Buxton, Emma Wood, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
About the author
Very little biographical information about Frances Clare appears to survive in readily accessible reference sources. One reliable Victorian fiction index lists her birth and death dates as unknown, which suggests she remains a largely obscure figure even though her books are still traceable through library and catalog records.
She is known for children's books published in London by Skeffington in the 1880s, including A Child's Pilgrimage: A Series of Allegorical and Other Tales for Children (1886) and A Store of Stories: For Children (1888). These titles point to a style shaped by the period's fondness for short stories, allegory, and gentle moral instruction for younger readers.
Because so little personal information is currently easy to confirm, the books themselves are the clearest window into her legacy. Frances Clare seems to belong to that large group of once-active children's authors whose work outlived the details of their lives, leaving behind stories that still preserve a small piece of the Victorian reading world.