author

Mrs. George Sheldon Downs

1843–1926

A hugely popular late-19th-century storyteller, she wrote romantic and sensational fiction under the pen name Georgie Sheldon and published a long list of novels for mass-market readers. Her books are full of reversals, hidden identities, and determined heroines, which helped make her a familiar name in popular fiction of the day.

1 Audiobook

Redeemed

Redeemed

by Mrs. George Sheldon Downs

About the author

Writing as Georgie Sheldon, Mrs. George Sheldon Downs was an American popular novelist born in 1843 and died in 1926. Bibliographic records also connect her with the forms Mrs. Georgie Sheldon and Mrs. George Sheldon Downs, showing how her work circulated under several related names.

She became especially known for prolific fiction published in inexpensive series and story papers, reaching a wide general audience. Surviving bibliographies list many titles, including Trixy, Virgie's Inheritance, Wedded by Fate, Brownie's Triumph, Mona, and That Dowdy, along with many others that suggest a remarkably steady writing career.

Her novels belong to the lively tradition of sentimental and sensational popular fiction, with strong emotional plots, secrets, class tensions, marriages, and sudden twists of fortune. Although detailed biographical information is hard to confirm from the sources I found, the record of her publications makes clear that she was a notably productive author whose stories were widely read in her era.