Margracia Loudon

Margracia Loudon (c. 1788 – 1860) was an Irish novelist and political author. She is known for her political works Philanthropic Economy (1835), The Light of Mental Science (1845), The Voices of Bulgaria (1846).

Biography
Margracia Ryves was born around 1788 at Castle Ryves, near Knocklong, County Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of William Ryves, a landowner, and his wife, Frances Catherine Ryves, author of Cumbrian Legends; or, Tales of Other Times (1812). In 1830, she married Charles Loudon, a physician, and they settled in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England.

Loudon was a popular novelist before turning to political writing. Her Philanthropic Economy (1835) became famous for its opposition to the Corn Laws, and actually predated the founding of the Anti-Corn Law League (1838). Her next work, The Light of Mental Science (1845), was influenced by phrenology. Her final non-fiction work, The Voices of Bulgaria (1846), focused on the plight of Christians in Ottoman-occupied Bulgaria and featured her own translations from Bulgarian.

She died in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England in 1860.

Novels

 * First Love: A Novel (1830)
 * Fortune-Hunting: A Novel (1832)
 * Dilemmas of Pride (1833)
 * The Fortunes of Woman (1849)
 * Maternal Love: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1849.

Other works

 * Philanthropic Economy, or the Philosophy of Happiness, Practically Applied to the Social, Political, and Commercial Relations of Great Britain (1835)
 * Corn Laws: Selections from Mrs Loudon's Philanthropic Economy (1842)
 * The Light of Mental Science (1845)
 * The Voices of Bulgaria (1846)