Dorothea Gerard (1855–1915)

Dorothea Gerard was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, a daughter of Col. Archibald Gerard of Rochsoles House, and his wife Euphemia Robison. She had six siblings, including her older sister Jane "Emily" Gerard, a novelist. Dorothea was educated at home until the death of her mother in 1870, and then went to live with Emily, now married and living in Austria, where she continued her education at a convent school. Dorothea began to write novels, with her first major work being a collaboration with Emily under the joint pseudonym E. D. Gerard. This story, Reata: or What's in a Name, was published in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1880. The sisters published three subsequent novels in the same magazine. In 1886, Dorothea married Julius Longard, an Austrian military officer, with whom she had a daughter and lived in Vienna and Galicia. In 1894, her husband was awarded the title "Longard de Longgarde" in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As Dorothea Longard de Longgarde, she became successful as a novelist and short story writer in her own right. She published more than 30 romance novels, many of them aimed at English speakers traveling abroad. Her famous tale "My Nightmare," from her book of short stories On The Way Through (1892), has appeared in many anthologies of Victorian horror and suspense. She was distinguished by a piercing eye for national and ethnic divides, anti-Semitism, and other forms of prejudice. She also wrote a social study of the pan-European officer class of the Imperial Austrian army.