author
Mrs. Coulson Kernahan
1857–1941
A Victorian novelist with a gift for both domestic fiction and imaginative tales, she published under the name Mrs. Coulson Kernahan after her second marriage. Her work ranged from three-volume novels to children’s stories, reflecting the breadth and flexibility of late 19th- and early 20th-century popular writing.
1 Audiobook
The Thirteenth Man
by Mrs. Coulson Kernahan
About the author
Born Jeanie Gwynne Bettany on January 25, 1857, she was a British novelist who later became widely known in print as Mrs. Coulson Kernahan. She was first married to the writer and scientist George Thomas Bettany, and after his death she married the novelist Coulson Kernahan in 1892. Reference sources and library records identify her as a prolific author whose career stretched across the late Victorian and early modern period.
She wrote novels, stories, and books for younger readers, and is especially remembered today through public-domain and library catalogs that preserve works published under her married name. Her writing appeared during an era when many women authors published under socially recognizable marital styles, and her bibliography shows how comfortably she moved between mainstream fiction and children’s literature.
Although she is less famous now than some of her contemporaries, her work remains of interest to readers exploring overlooked women writers of the period. She died in 1941, leaving behind a body of fiction that still offers a glimpse into the tastes and storytelling styles of her time.