Catherine Louisa Pirkis
1841–1910 (age 69)
Biography
Catherine Louisa Pirkis was a gifted writer whose detective fiction and social conscience won admiration from readers and reformers alike. Through her popular tales she introduced female sleuths whose intelligence and compassion challenged contemporary assumptions about women’s roles.
She also advocated for the humane treatment of animals, helping to found organisations devoted to their protection; her pen was an instrument for justice in both the imagined and the real worlds.