author

Virginia C. Young

Best known for a single surviving novel from the late 19th century, this elusive writer is linked to a heartfelt story about childhood, hardship, and the making of a musician. Her work has endured largely through reprints and Project Gutenberg, even though biographical details about her remain scarce.

1 Audiobook

Philip: The Story of a Boy Violinist

Philip: The Story of a Boy Violinist

by Virginia C. Young, Mary C. (Mary Churchill) Hungerford

About the author

Virginia C. Young is credited as a coauthor of Philip: The Story of a Boy Violinist, a novel first published in 1898 with Mary C. Hungerford. The book follows a gifted boy growing up in difficult surroundings and blends domestic feeling, struggle, and music into a coming-of-age story.

Available records found during this search are very limited, and that scarcity is part of her story. Project Gutenberg lists only this one work under her name, and Internet Archive records for the 1898 edition note that T. W. O. was the pseudonym attached to Virginia C. Young and Mary C. Hungerford.

Because so little reliable biographical information is readily documented, it is safest to remember her through the novel itself: a late-19th-century work centered on talent, resilience, and the emotional pull of music.