Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon (January 12, 1829 – September 20, 1879), born Rosanna Eleanor Mullins, was a Canadian writer and poet. She was "one of the first English-Canadian writers to depict French Canada in a way that earned the praise of, and resulted in her novels being read by, both anglophone and francophone Canadians."

Life Leprohon was born on January 12, 1829, in Montreal to Francis and Rosanna Mullins. The second daughter of a wealthy merchant, she was educated at the Convent of the Congregation of Notre Dame. She later wrote the poems "A Touching Ceremony" and "On the Death of the Same Reverend Nun" to honor the nuns and convent.

She "published her first poetry, at age 17, in Literary Garland, followed by serialized novels of manners set in England, published annually from 1848 to 1851." Ida Beresford, her first novel, first ran in the Garland in nine instalments in 1848. Her literary output suffered. By 1859, though she was back in Montreal and had resumed writing, with a new novel, Eveleen O'Donnell, serialized in Boston magazine The Pilot.

All three of these Canadian novels "were well reviewed at the time of their first publication in both the English- and French-Canadian press." A French translation of each was quickly published, and all three "became part of both Canadian literatures."

Five of Leprohon's poems were included in Edward Hartley's 1864 anthology, Selections from Canadian Poets. In 1867, the biographical dictionary Bibliotheca Canadensis said she had done "more almost than any other Canadian writer to foster and promote the growth of a national Literature."

Recognition Leprohon's novels were popular in both English and French Canada in the late 19th century, and were still being reprinted in French in the mid-1920s. They gradually went out of fashion in the early 20th century, as literary styles changed.

"Since 1970, however,"says the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "the life and works of Rosanna Eleanor Mullins Leprohon have been frequently noted and increasingly praised by critics and scholars of both English-and French-Canadian literature, and new editions of her works have been published."