Born: August 14, 1802 Died: October 15, 1838
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838), often publishing under the mysterious moniker “L.E.L.,” was the Victorian-era literary equivalent of a firework: dazzling, volatile, and destined to be talked about long after the smoke cleared. A wildly popular poet, novelist, and critic, Landon was one of the first women to turn poetic celebrity into a full-blown marketing strategy. She practically invented the concept of the “tragic lady poet”—beating out the likes of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by over a century, though with fewer therapy sessions and more velvet bonnets.
Born in London and tutored at home, Landon began writing professionally in her teens, publishing her poetry in Literary Gazette and dazzling the public with her sentimental, melancholic, and often morally anguished verse. Her style was lush and emotional—think Byron, but make it bridal. She wrote about love, death, ruin, and repression with such impassioned gusto that Victorian women swooned and Victorian men got uncomfortable.
But Landon’s success wasn’t just due to lyrical talent—it was also gossip-fueled rocket fuel. Her personal life was shrouded in scandal: secret lovers, rumored affairs, mysterious broken engagements, and (spoiler alert) a suspiciously timed death. Critics speculated that her poetry was far too emotional to be fictional. She was accused of living the very “fallen woman” life she so often depicted in verse—a wild accusation in an age when even showing ankle could tank your reputation.
In 1838, Landon married George Maclean and moved with him to Cape Coast (now Ghana), where he served as governor. Just weeks later, she was found dead—on the floor, clutching a bottle of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide, for the curious chemists among us). Officially ruled an accident, the nature of her death has inspired conspiracy theories and armchair detective work ever since.
Whether you view her as a proto-feminist icon, a tragic victim of the patriarchy, or the original sad-girl influencer, Landon carved out a space for emotionally charged women’s voices in a literary scene dominated by powdered wigs and moral posturing.
