Lady Helena Carnegie

Lady Helena Mariota Carnegie (1865–1943) was a Scottish writer, remembered today above all as the co-author of The Infant Moralist with Violet Jacob, published in 1903. The book presents mock-improving poems for children in a neatly moral style, but with a wit that gives it more bite than an ordinary period piece.

She was the daughter of James Carnegie, 9th Earl of Southesk, and sources also describe her as a lapidary, showing that her interests reached beyond literature. She edited Catalogue of the Collection of Antique Gems Formed by James, Ninth Earl of Southesk, linking her work to her father's collection and to the study of decorative art and gems.

Although not a widely known literary figure now, her name continues to appear through archives, library records, and modern reissues of The Infant Moralist. What survives suggests a writer with a taste for concise, polished expression and a talent for turning the language of moral instruction into something memorable.