Caroline Fitzgerald | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Caroline Fitzgerald, 1900 | |
| Born | Caroline Fitzgerald September 22, 1865 |
| Died | December 25, 1911 (aged 46) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names |
|
| Occupation | poet |
| Notable work | Venetia Victrix and Other Poems |
| Spouses | |
Caroline Fitzgerald (September 22, 1865 – December 25, 1911) was an American poet and litteratrice who spent most of her adult life in Europe, particularly Italy. Although not fabulously rich, she was wealthy enough to move to and fro between The Gilded Age in America and La Belle Époque in Europe. Inspired by Robert Browning's verse, she published a volume of poetry which was well received at the time but which eventually became almost forgotten. She married into the English aristocracy to Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice until she was able to get the marriage annulled after a few years.
After the end of her marriage, as a single woman she travelled widely in Europe becoming friendly with authors including Henry James and Sir Frederic Kenyon. She had romantic relationships with two men, both at the start of their professional careers, who were neither particularly wealthy nor who moved in high society. In 1901 she married the Italian physician, academic, explorer and mountaineer Filippo De Filippi. Together they toured Central Asia and India. Their happy marriage was cut short by her death in 1911 at the age of forty-six.
Her biography, published in 2018, points out the parallels between her life and that of several of the female protagonists in the earlier novels of a writer she knew well, Henry James, exemplified by Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady.