- Eric Mackay
George Eric Mackay (1851-1898 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C0DE5D71E39E433A25750C0A9609C94699ED7CF&oref=slogin "New York Times" obituary, 1898] ] ) was an English minor poet, now remembered as the sponging half-brother of
Marie Corelli , the best-selling novelist. Mackay and Corelli, born Mary Mackay, were the children ofCharles Mackay [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Charles_Mackay Charles Mackay - LoveToKnow 1911 ] ] , by different mothers (Mary was illegitimate, with Charles marrying her mother subsequently [ [http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/speccoll/guides/corelli.shtml Marie Corelli Collection | Special Collections | Bryn Mawr College Library ] ] ).As a poet he is described as "execrable" [http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/521/2/adt-NU20030623.11115902whole.pdf PDF, p. 23] ] , and reliant on Corelli's promotion of his works. Mackay achieved some reputation in his time for "Letters of a Violinist" (1886). It sold 35,000 copies; he repaid Corelli's efforts by implying he wrote her novels. [Philip J. Waller, "Writers, Readers, And Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918" (2006), p. 467.]
A 1940 biography of Corelli, George Bullock's "Marie Corelli: The Life and Death of a Best-Seller", hinted that the relationship was incestuous; this has generally been discounted, though Eric's laziness and lack of scruples are acknowledged.. This was an old rumour, attributed to
Edmund Gosse [ [http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/corelli/salmonson1.html Marie Corelli and her Occult Tales ] ] .Notes
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