Mrs. Henry Wood

Mrs. Henry Wood (born Jan. 17, 1814, Worcester, Worcestershire, Eng.—died Feb. 10, 1887, London) was an English novelist who wrote the sensational and extremely popular East Lynne (1861), a melodramatic and moralizing tale of the fall of virtue. Translated into many languages, it was dramatized with great success, and its plot has been frequently imitated in popular fiction.

Other highly successful works followed, and in some of them (notably the novel The Channings [1862] and her Johnny Ludlow tales [1868–91]) Wood showed great ability in storytelling and in creating natural middle-class characters and relationships. In 1867 she became proprietor and editor of Argosy magazine.