Best known work

• The Ascent of Man, 1889

Other well known work(s)

• Tantarella, 1885

Genres

• Biography / Autobiography
• Poetry
• Fiction - Novels
• Travel Writing / Translation

Nom de plume

Mathilde Cohen, Claude Lake

Social class

Upper class

Parental background

Blind's father was a banker and she attended the Ladies Institute in St John's Wood for part of her education. Both Blind's mother and her second husband (and Blind's stepfather) were revolutionaries (Karl Blind worked with Karl Marx) who were involved in the 1848 Baden Uprising in Germany and exiled from Germany as a result - which led them to emigrate to England when Mathilde was 10.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 48
• Marital status: Unmarried
• Number of children: 0

Physical description

Vernon Lee, who claimed to like Blind and admire her poetry, regarded her as 'amiable' but ugly and 'coarse ... extremely like Ouida' (Vernon Lee's Letters, 64, 80, 91). Others who knew her described her as handsome, despite a disagreeable and strongly accented speaking voice. (Patricia Srebrnik, ODNB) She is described in the Blackburn Standard as "about the average height, has brown eyes and a mass of dark fuzzy hair, which she wears in rather picturesque confusion" (March 9, 1889).

Did you know?

In 1866 her younger brother Ferdinand attempted to assassinate Otto von Bismarck (Chancellor of the German Empire). His attempt failed and Ferdinand subsequently committed suicide in prison. Blind was profoundly affected by the events.

Additional information

A memoir of Blind written by Richard Garnett can be found in Arthur Symons' edited edition of The Poetical Works of Mathilde Blind (1900). Extracts of Mathilde Blind: Late-Victorian Culture and the Woman of Letters are available on Google Books.