John Oliver Hobbes (1867–1906)

John Oliver Hobbes was the pseudonym of Pearl Craigie, née Richards, born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were John Morgan Richards, a businessman, and his wife Laura Hortense Arnold. When she was a baby, the family moved to London, England, where she was educated by tutors. She began writing at an early age and published two stories at age nine. She later studied the classics at University College. In 1887, at age 19, she married Reginald Walpole Craigie, with whom she had a son. However, the union was unhappy and she left her husband in 1891; their separation culminated in divorce in 1895. She converted to the Roman Catholic faith and added Maria Teresa to her name. She began her successful and prolific professional career as a novelist and playwright in a big way with her first book, a novella called Some Emotions and a Moral (1891), which was a sensational bestseller. Other novels included The Sinner's Comedy (1892), A Study in Temptations (1893), A Bundle of Life (1894), The Herb Moon (1896), The School for Saints (1897), and Robert Orange (1900). Among her dramas was a one-act play, Journeys End in Lovers' Meeting (1894) for actress-producer Ellen Terry. In 1906, at age 38, at the height of her fame, she died suddenly of heart failure.