write a book of verse-translations, Fable and Song in Italy, published in 1899, and a novel, Flowers of Fire, a story set in Naples. The novel was published in the years leading up to Clerke's death, but was not well received. One review states, "This story is interesting, as proving that neither Polish conspiracies nor Neapolitan courtships can fill the dreary void left in a novel by the absence of men and women... [the characters] are distinguished from each other only by some external badge, such as yellow hair or a hot temper, and by the single hard black line that marks off the good characters from the bad." In addition to contributing a number of biographical entries to the Dictionary of National Biography, works by Ellen Mary Clerke include: The Flying Dutchman and Other Poems (London: Satchell & Co. 1881), another ed. (1882); Jupiter and His System (London: Edward Stanford 1892); Translations of poetry in R. Garnett, History of Italian Literature (London: Hutchinson 1902); Fable and Song in Italy (London: Grant Richards 1899); Flowers of Fire (London: Hutchinson 1902). Later life After ten years in Italy, the family moved to London in 1877. There, Clerke took up a post as a journalist at the Dublin Review, a Roman Catholic newspaper. From 1885, Clerke also wrote about Italian and German politics as a permanent editor at the weekly Tablet - a position she held until her death. Ellen Mary Clerke died of pneumonia at her home in South Kensington on 2 March 1906, aged 65, following a short illness. References External links 1840 births 1906 deaths Irish astronomers People from Skibbereen Irish writers Irish women journalists 19th-century women writers