Kathleen O'Meara, also known under her pen name Grace Ramsay (1839 – 10 November 1888), was an Irish-French Catholic writer and biographer during the late Victorian era.
[3] Her sister Geraldine Mary, who had been living with her in Paris was sole executrix of O'Meara's will, probate date 8 March 1889, which provided instructions for dispensing her posthumous estate of £3,110.
[5] While O'Meara did not have great success at the beginning of her career but succeeded in winning fame later in life, her own experiences led her to encourage young and aspiring authors.
[6] Despite living in France, O'Meara's English novels, biographies, and periodical articles found great success in her last two decades of life.
[3] This led many of her readers to believe her to be English, allowing O'Meara to be mostly well received in Protestant England, despite engaging in controversial writing topics.
She deems Mr. Gurney's opinions "not worth replying to", but adds, "If it pleases the gentleman to recognize his own likeness in the heterodox Mr. Brown of my story, it would be unkind to contradict him."
Also, she ends by thanking the periodical's reviewer of her book "especially for having pointed out its aim and object, which was, as he justly surmised, to bid English governesses pause before rushing abroad to try their fortunes.
[2] Narka, a Story of Russian Life (1888) became one of O'Meara's other more popular novels, sympathetically depicting social problems such as poverty and suffering.
As The Woman's Journal reported in 1877, "This authoress, known as a writer under the nom de plume of Grace Ramsay, has thrown off her mask, and in her latest works takes her own name.
Praising her for her thoroughness, the review continues, "She has her subject clearly defined, and its details at her finger-ends, before taking pen in hand; and, her story once begun, she has the rare talent of sustaining interest on to the end.