Mrs. Russell Barrington

author

Mrs. Russell Barrington

d. 1933

A British writer and painter, she is best remembered for thoughtful biographical works and for moving in the literary circles of late Victorian and early 20th-century England.

2 Audiobooks

The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton. Volume II

by Mrs. Russell Barrington

The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton. Volume I

by Mrs. Russell Barrington

About the author

Born Emilie Isabel Wilson, she wrote under the name Mrs. Russell Barrington and is identified in library and archival records as a British writer and painter. A 1931 Cambridge archival record places her at Herds Hill in Langport, Somerset, and shows that she was still active in literary correspondence late in life.

She is especially associated with biography and memoir. Her best-known works include The Life of Walter Bagehot and The Servant of All, a life of General Booth. The surviving record suggests a writer closely connected with public, intellectual, and reform-minded circles rather than a novelist working mainly in fiction.

Museum records also preserve her image: the V&A catalogues an 1899 portrait of her by photographer Frederick Hollyer, identifying her as Emilie Isabel Barrington. Although detailed biographical information is limited, the available sources present her as a cultivated late-Victorian author whose work centered on notable lives and ideas.