27 of 'Leslie's Fate; and Hilda, or the Ghost of Erminstein' (11216752763)

Although known as Evelyn Stuart Hardy and commonly said to have been born in 1870, she was actually born Beatrice Evelyn Elizabeth Hardy in 1865, her year of birth obscured by her decreasing age in census records (1871: 5; 1881: 14; 1891: 17; 1901: 21). She was born in Clifton, Bristol, to an artistic family, both her father David Hardy and his wife Emily, being artists. Her elder brothers David (better known as Paul Hardy, 1862-1942) and Norman Heywood Hardy (1863-1914) also became artists. From an early age she contributed work to periodicals and illustrated many books for Ernest Nister, who was known for publishing pop up books and nursery rhymes. For example, A Visit to Fairyland with Humpty Dumpty (1898) was positively reviewed as “an ingenious and elaborate conception. There are folding coloured plates with landscapes and architectural elevations, and with figures and animals moved by strips of cardboard.”