Researching the lives of authors like Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known as L.E.L. and once dubbed the "female Byron," can take years. The process involves immense dedication; the author's first book, The Brontë Myth, took around eight years to complete. Her latest project on Landon has been nearly nine years in the making.
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The author, managing various life responsibilities including journalism, teaching, and raising children, reflects on the challenges of balancing such tasks. She draws a parallel to Victorian novelist Mrs. Gaskell, who wrote Life of Charlotte Brontë amid domestic distractions and completed it in just two years.
Despite the modern academic recognition of literary biography as a legitimate field, the author notes the lack of institutional support during her undergraduate studies in the 1980s. She highlights that the prevailing intellectual climate, heavily influenced by post-structuralism, often marginalized biographical approaches. The notion of the "death of the author" led many to focus on texts rather than their creators.
A pivotal moment for her occurred while studying in the Bodleian library at Oxford, where she realized the effort behind curating letters from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This understanding of the complexities of truth and representation gradually informed her own work in biography. In The Brontë Myth, she initially took a detached stance on the Brontës’ portrayal in history, avoiding the personal engagement that later characterized her exploration of Landon.
Landon was a figure of fascination; her poetry had once been admired by the Brontë sisters, yet she was later dismissed as a minor talent. The author became captivated by new revelations about Landon's life, particularly findings from a descendant in 2000 that contradicted the perception of her as a reclusive poet. Landon had given birth to three illegitimate children during a tumultuous relationship with a married editor, which greatly influenced her public persona amidst societal constraints of the time.
Investigating Landon’s life led to a re-evaluation of her poetry. The author's obsession grew as she uncovered details about Landon’s life as a trailblazer in a world that often stifled women’s voices. Landon’s career took off following a teenage affair with her editor, who became integral to her success and also the father of her children. Tragically, she died under mysterious circumstances in 1838, prompting a series of biographies that omitted her more scandalous personal history.
The author discovered that these omissions were part of a broader narrative shaped by Victorian society, which sought to sanitize the image of the publishing industry. Analyzing contemporary sources, she found contradictions and silences that painted a clearer picture of Landon’s reality—one that was marked by both profound talent and personal sacrifice.
While sifting through historical records, she noticed significant gaps, including a lack of compensation for Landon’s contributions to her lover's magazine, disclosing a troubling dynamic of dependence despite her fame. The internet has transformed research possibilities, allowing access to archives and evidence that were previously challenging to obtain.
Amidst the complexities of Landon’s life and work, she felt compelled to unravel the intricacies of her subject’s existence. Landon’s first biographer suffered a tragic fate in 1845, further complicating the legacy of her story. The allure of solving the "mystery of L.E.L." kept the author dedicated through the years of research, with a personal quest to uncover the truth behind Landon's enigmatic life.