Eliza Davis

Eliza Davis Aria (1866–1931) was an English fashion writer and gossip columnist known as "Mrs Aria". She was the editor of a fashion magazine titled The World of Dress, author of numerous books on costume and motoring, and a society hostess. She was also the long-time lover of Henry Irving.[1][2]

Among her seven siblings was the novelist and art historian Julia Frankau (whose pseudonym was Frank Danby) and the racing correspondent, theatre critic and librettist Owen Hall. Another sister, Florence Collins, published one novel, The Luddingtons (Heinemann 1905). Her nephew Gilbert Frankau became a journalist and novelist, and Gilbert's younger brother Ronald Frankau went onto the stage.[3]

Mrs Aria's literary and theatrical salon included Oscar Wilde and Sir Henry Irving.[3]

References

  1. ^ Stetz, Margaret D. "‘To defend the undefendable’: Oscar Wilde and the Davis Family". Oscar Wilde, Jews & the Fin-de-Siècle, The OScholars, Summer 2010, accessed 26 July 2011
  2. ^ d’Arch Smith, Timothy. The Times Deceas’d. Settrington, UK: Stone Trough Books, 2005.
  3. ^ a b Aria, Eliza Davis. My Sentimental Self, Chapman & Hall 1922, p. 20.

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