Eric Mackay

George Eric Mackay (1835 –2 June 1898 ) was an English minor poet, now remembered as the sponging half-brother of Marie Corelli, the best-selling novelist. Mackay and Corelli, born Mary Mackay, were the children of Charles Mackay, by different mothers (Mary was illegitimate, with Charles marrying her mother subsequently ).

As a poet he is described as "execrable", and reliant on Corelli's promotion of his works. His first works appeared in periodicals in the early 1860s; he achieved some reputation in his time for Love Letters of a Violinist (1886). It sold 35,000 copies; he repaid Corelli's efforts by implying he wrote her novels.

A 1940 biography of Corelli, George Bullock's Marie Corelli: The Life and Death of a Best-Seller, hinted that the relationship was incestuous; this has generally been discounted, though Eric's laziness and lack of scruples are acknowledged.

Mackay's poem "Elëanor" was set to music by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. (Song published in 1899 by Novello & Co.)

He was interred in Highgate Cemetery on 4 June 1898.