BRADDON, MARY ELIZABETH English novelist, daughter of Henry Braddon, solicitor, of Skirdon Lodge, Cornwall, and sister of Sir Edward Braddon, prime minister of Tasmania, produced her first novel, The Trail of the Serpent, in 1861. In the same year appeared Garibaldi, and other poems, a volume of extremely spirited verse. In 1862 her reputation as a novelist was made by the success of Lady Audley's Secret. This novel, translated into many languages, has been dramatized, filmed, and in its original narrative form has been reprinted innumerable times. For a considerable time Miss Braddon conducted Bel gravia, in which several of her novels appeared. She died on Feb. 4, 1915. She was a tireless worker, and in her long series of novels, plays, and stories maintained a freshness and an abundant in ventiveness which endeared her to millions of readers.
, Among the more famous of her 8o novels were John Marchmont's Legacy (1863), Dead Men's Shoes (1876), Vixen (1879), Asphodel " (1881), London Pride (1896), and The Green Curtain (191I) . Two of her sons, W. B. Maxwell and Gerald Maxwell, became well known novelists.