| Main entry | Leprohon, Rosanna Eleanor |
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| Birth place | Montreal, Quebec |
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| Birth date | 12 January 1829 |
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| Death place | Montreal, Quebec |
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| Death date | 20 September 1879 |
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| Identifier | 0439 |
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| Birth name | Rosanna Ellen Mullins (later changed "Ellen" to "Eleanora") |
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| Married name | Leprohon |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Catholic |
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| Paid work | journalist |
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| Biography | Bilingual author of poems, short stories, and novels, Rosanna Eleanor Mullins (1829-1879) was born and raised in Montreal, second child of a wealthy Irish merchant. She attended the prestigious Convent of the Congregation of Notre Dame where, in addition to classical studies, playing instruments, and drawing, she was encouraged to write. (She would later dedicate poems to influential figures from her schooldays.) Interested in French Canadian culture and religion, in 1846, at the age of seventeen, she published her first poem in the LITERARY GARLAND, entitled "The Young Novice." Her early poems, short stories, and serialized novels regularly appeared in this periodical and received favorable reviews, including praise from Susanna Moodie.* Continuing to write for pleasure, she became acquainted with the French-speaking Leprohon family in 1849, and married Dr. Jean-Lukin Leprohon (1822-1900) in 1851, coinciding with the final year of publication for the LITERARY GARLAND. Together, Jean-Lukin and Rosanna would have thirteen children, five of whom died in infancy. The family lived for a time in St. Charles, where he had his practice, and returned to Montreal in 1855. Despite the responsibilities of caring for a growing household, Rosanna published her serial novel "The Manor House of De Villerai" (1861), her first novel set in Canada and concerned with Canadian history. This was followed by two more Canadian novels, among them ANTOINETTE DE MIRECOURT (1864), the best novel written about English-French relations in 19th century Canada. Five of her poems were included in the first anthology of Canadian poetry, Edward Hartley Dewart's SELECTIONS FROM CANADIAN POETS (1864), and her contributions to a distinctly Canadian literature were widely recognized in both English and French Canada. Rosanna died in 1879 in Montreal. Her final collection of poetry was edited and published with the aid of a neighbour, GAZETTE editor John Reade. |
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| Other notes | Son Rodolphe became a physician. Son Claude was assistant engineer of the department of highways who supervised the widening of Lachine Canal and the construction of the dam in Montreal; he was also Vice-Consul of Brazil. For detailed descriptions of Leprohon's works, see Lorraine McMullen and Elizabeth Waterston's "Rosanna Mullins Leprohon: At Home in Many Worlds" in SILENCED SEXTET (1993). |
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| Residences | Montreal, Quebec (1829-1851); St.-Charles-sur-Richelieu, Quebec (1851-1855); Montreal (1855-1879) |
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| Geographic regions | Quebec |
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| Primary genres | poetry; fiction |
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| Books | LE MANOIR DE VILLERAI (1861); ANTOINETTE DE MIRECOURT: OR, SECRET MARRYING AND SECRET SORROWING (1864, English) (1865, French); ARMAND DURAND: OR, A PROMISE FULFILLED (1868); THE POETICAL WORKS OF MRS. LEPROHON (1881); THE MANOR HOUSE (1985) |
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| Periodicals | BOSTON PILOT; CANADIAN ILLUSTRATED NEWS; CANADIAN MONTHLY AND NATIONAL REVIEW; FAMILY HERALD; HEARTHSTONE; JOURNAL OF CANADIAN LITERATURE; JOURNAL OF EDUCATION; LITERARY GARLAND; MONTREAL DAILY NEWS; L'ORDRE; TRUE WITNESS; SATURDAY READER |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Dewart, SELECTIONS FROM CANADIAN POETS (1864); Harrison, CANADIAN BIRTHDAY BOOK (1887); Lighthall, CANADIAN POEMS AND LAYS (c1892); Lighthall, SONGS OF THE GREAT DOMINION (1889); Rand, TREASURY OF CANADIAN VERSE (1900); Dewart, SELECTIONS FROM CANADIAN POETS (1864); Whyte-Edgar, WREATH OF CANADIAN SONG (1910)
Serialized Novels: "The Stepmother" (1847); "Ida Beresford; or, The Child of Fashion" (1848), translated into French and serialized (1859); "Florence Fitz-Hardinge; or, Wit and Wisdom" (1849); "Eva Huntingdon" (1850); "Clarence Fitz-Clarence; Passages from the Life of an Egoist" (1851); "Eveleen O'Donnell" (1859); "The Manor House" (1860); "Clarence Fitz Clarence" (1860); "Eva Huntington" (1864); "Florence Fitz Harding" (1869); "Ada Dunmore; or, A Memorable Christmas Eve" (1869-70) |
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| Father's name | Francis Mullins |
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| Life dates of father | c1800, Cork, Ireland - 27 April 1866, Montreal, Quebec; m. 1824 |
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| Father's note | immigrated shortly after 1819; successful merchant in Montreal (grocer, ship's chandler, importer, marine storekeeper); owned large holdings of waterfront property; sat on city council (1858-60) |
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| Mother's name | Rosanna Connelly |
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| Life dates of mother | c1800, Montreal, Quebec - ; m. 1824 |
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| Mother's note | daughter of Michael Connelly, Montreal schoolmaster |
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| Spouse 1 | Dr. Jean Lukin Leprohon (baptised Jean Baptiste Lucain Leprohon) |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 7 April 1822, Chambly, Quebec - 23 May 1900, Montreal |
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| Spouse 1 note | medical doctor (surgeon of Tenth Battalion of Militia); co-founder of Women's Hospital of Montreal; vice-consul to Spain; descended from the Leprohons, who participated in the Conquest in 1760 and the War of 1812, and the de Niverville family, long-standing residents of Early Quebec; founded LA LANCETTE CANADIENNE; appointed consultant to Montreal Dispensary (1864); appointed to present report on Montreal's sanitary conditions (1866) |
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| Marriage 1 date | 17 June 1851 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Notre-Dame Church, Montreal, Quebec |
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| Children number | 13 |
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| Children's names and dates | Lucien de Beaufort (29 May 1852 - 8 July 1852);
Gabrielle Louise (26 November 1853 - after 1877), m. to Joseph Alexandre Bonier;
Rodolphe Edgar Connelly (1854 - 20 September 1928), m. to Marie Gabrielle Marguerite Pollant;
Claude de Bellefeuille (10 October 1856 - 12 April 1909);
Marie Geraldine Rose (29 December 1857 - after 1881), m. Albert Camille Marie Leplat;
Edouard Thomas François (10 November 1859 - 6 March 1925), m. to Helen Augusta Ballou;
Joseph Arthur Lukin (1862 - September 1862);
Gertrude Ida (7 July 1863 - after 1891);
Marie Antoinette Selby (October 1865 - October 1865);
Eleanora Florence d'Hererville (April 1867 - July 1867);
Marie Florence (14 May 1868 - after 1893), m. to Leopold Vellevoy;
John de Niverville Chapman (October 1870 - 5 January 1938);
Marie Maude Estelle (January 1873 - September 1873)
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| Biographical references | Dictionary of Literary Biography 99; Dictionary of Canadian Biography 10; McMullen & Waterston, "Rosanna Mullins Leprohon: At Home in Many Worlds" in SILENCED SEXTET (1993), pp. 14-51; Morgan, BIBLIOTHECA CANADENSIS (1867); Willard & Livermore, WOMEN OF THE CENTURY (1897), p. 459; 1861 Census of Canada; Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 113, 327 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Image credits | Image from Henry Morgan, TYPES OF CANADIAN WOMEN (Toronto: Briggs, 1903). |
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| Copyright | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. |
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