Richard Dowling

Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, on June 3, 1846, Richard Dowling was educated in Clonmel, Waterford, and at St Munchin's Jesuit college in Limerick. Before turning fully to literature, he worked in his uncle's shipping office in Waterford.

He became part of Dublin's literary world, contributing to papers linked with Irish writers and later moving to England, where he wrote short stories for the Illustrated London News. From there he built a busy career as a novelist and essayist, publishing many works of fiction, including The Mystery of Killard (1879), Under St. Paul's, and The Duke's Sweetheart. He also collaborated on The Fate of Fenella, the unusual 1892 novel written by a team of authors.

Dowling was known as a prolific, versatile writer whose stories mixed romance, humor, and suspense in a way that suited the broad magazine and circulating-library audience of his day. He died in South London on July 28, 1898.