The Authorship of Two Girls on a Barge (1891), Reassessed

Abstract

Until recently, the novel Two Girls on a Barge (1891) has been attributed to Canadian author and journalist Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861–1922), writing under the pseudonym “V. Cecil Cotes.” This article provides evidence that, while Duncan did appear to have influenced the style and structure of the novel, the author was Violet Cecil Cotes (1868–1915), Duncan’s sister-in-law.