Marmion Wilme Savage

Savage, Marmion W., an author, was born in Ireland early in the 18th century. He took his B.A. degree at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1824, and for many years filled a responsible government office in Dublin. He was the author of several novels that enjoyed considerable popularity, the first of which, The Falcon Family or Young Ireland, was published anonymously in 1845. This was followed by The Bachelor of the Albany (1847) and My Uncle the Curate (1849), both anonymous. His fourth novel, Reuben Medlicott (1852), was the first published in his own name. The Woman of Business, 1870, was his last work. The Annual Register says: "The comparative obscurity of his name in the literary world was owing to the circumstance that, as his early productions touched upon political topics,.. the author not deeming it advisable in his official capacity to engage in party politics, assumed a nom de plume, to which he subsequently clung from habit." He settled in England in 1856, and for several years edited the Examiner. His health broke down, partly from over exertion, and he removed from London to Torquay, where he died, 1st May 1872, after prolonged sufferings. His first wife was a niece of Lady Morgan. "Mr. Savage was a thorough scholar, and his writings are as much distinguished for correct taste and exquisite finish, as by that quiet humour for which the present generation, somewhat blunted by the stronger manner of its own sensational writers, seems rapidly to be losing all relish."[7] He was possessed of a rich fund of humour and brilliant social qualities.

Sources

7. Annual Register. London, 1756-1877.

16. Authors, Dictionary of British and American: S. Austin Allibone. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1859-'71.

233. Manuscript and Special Information, and Current Periodicals.