Mary Mohl

Mary Elizabeth Mohl or Mary Elizabeth Clarke (22 February 1793 – 15 May 1883) was a British writer who was known as a salon hostess in Paris. She was known by her nickname of "Clarkey". She was admired for her independence and conversation. She eventually married the orientalist Julius von Mohl. She was an ardent Francophile, a feminist, and a close friend of Florence Nightingale. She wrote about her interest in the history of women's rights.

Life Mary Elizabeth Clarke was born in Westminster in 1793. After the death of her father, Charles Clarke, Mary, at age 8, her mother, Elizabeth, and grandmother moved to France in 1801. Both her guardians were strong and independent-minded women. Her Scottish grandmother had hobnobbed with thinkers like David Hume and Adam Smith in Edinburgh and before the French Revolution lived in Dunkirk. Mary's mother Elizabeth was a progressive free thinker.

Ties with England were not lost; in 1808 Mary's sister, Eleanor, married John Frewen-Turner, a member of parliament. Mary would frequently visit their home at Cold Overton in Leicestershire. as well as a leader in French intellectual salon society. After the 1815 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, Mary Clarke came to know Juliette Recamier... Through her, she met literary greats such as Stendhal, Hugo, Prosper Merimee and Chateaubriand. Chateaubriand – author of Memoirs from Beyond the Grave – was by now a grumpy old man, but he cheered up when entertained by "la jeune anglaise". During her relationship with Claude Fauriel, she became acquainted with the family of the famous Italian writer and poet Alessandro Manzoni

In 1838 she made her final move when she rented rooms above the writer and historian François-René de Chateaubriand. These were a third floor apartment at 120 Rue du Bac in the Saint-Germain district. There,"she offered a home-from-home" to William Thackeray, the Brownings, and the Trollopes, "as well as to many aristocrats, diplomats and politicians."

In 1847, at around 54 years old, she married the orientalist Julius von Mohl who was the son of the prime minister to the king of Württemberg. It was said that someone coughed when she gave her age at the marriage and that it was recorded as 39. This book drew on her knowledge of Récamier, but it also outlined her interest in women and a history of their rights. She was a lifelong advocate for women and reading.

In 1870–71, Mohl decided to avoid France's war with Prussia, and spent the winter with friends in London. Having retired from being a hostess, Mohl died in Paris in 1883. She was buried with her husband in Paris in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.