Maria Elizabeth Budden

Who was Maria Elizabeth Budden?

Maria Elizabeth Budden, was a novelist, translator and writer of didactic children's books, who frequently signed her work "M. E. B." or "a mother".

Little has come to light about Budden's life. Her most popular work throughout the first half of the nineteenth century was her anonymously published Always Happy!!: Or, Anecdotes of Felix and his Sister Serena. A Tale. Also perennially popular were her True Stories... series of history books for young people, and her novel Claudine: or Humility the Basis of All of the Virtues. A Swiss Tale. These and other works of hers are available today in a number of print on demand editions, as they offer scholars interesting source material on the history of education and upbringing.

Like Elizabeth Thomas, Budden has been associated tentatively with the pseudonymous "Mrs. Bridget Bluemantle", author of nine novels published by the London Minerva Press between 1806 and 1818. However, Budden's Claudine... and "Mrs Bluemantle's" Claudine... are different novels.