Judith Fonseca Lestrange

Judith Arielle Fonseca Lestrange DRS, (November 9, 1821–January 5, 1911) was a Channelier-Sierran poet, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Her status as a woman, as well as her unconventional views and life caused controversy during her lifetime, which led to rejection and ridicule. Significant interest and respect in Lestrange's work did not develop until her final years during the Sierran Cultural Revolution. The first woman to be inducted into a Sierran chivalric order (the Royal Order of the Rose of Sharon), Lestrange was a prolific writer who contributed over 900 poems, 6 novels, 2 plays, and 33 short stories over the span of her adult life. She would briefly serve as Poet Laureate of Sierra from 1907 until her death. Contemporary scholars and literary circles have regarded Lestrange as one of Sierra's greatest poets.

Lestrange was born in Little Gibraltar to a prominent, upper middle-class family of lawyers and doctors. Although she attended Avalon College to become a nurse, she left without completing her studies to pursue a. Subsisting on her parents' finances, Lestrange spent months away from home, traveling to the mainland to explore the country. She developed a close fondness for Porciúncula and the surrounding area, and eventually settled in Riverside where she married labor worker Manuel Fonseca.

Although her most creative period in life occurred during the initial years of her life in Riverside, her subject matter often dealt with the Channels and her hometown, and spoke fondly of her childhood. She produced her first novel,Forsaken at Sea which was poorly received at the time and was nearly discouraged from writing again. After struggling with depression, she joined the Methodist Church in 1859, and began turning her attention towards writing novels and plays. In order to sustain her career, and the long hiatuses in her poetry and novel creations, she wrote for various newspapers as a columnist under various pseudonyms, most under male names (the most prominent being "Harry Stein"). Recognition of Lestrange as an accomplished writer came towards the end of her life as literary critics began seriously considering her works.

Family and childhood
Judith Fonseca Lestrange was born on November 9, 1821 in Les Chalets, Little Gibraltar, Channel Islands. Her father, Alexandre Lestrange, was a prominent French lawyer on the island, who served on the colonial government board. Her mother, Mariène Alves, was the daughter of a Spaniard military officer, and was reputed for her pompous clothing. Lestrange's brother, Frederic, was five years older than she was, while her sister, Emile, was two years younger. Her uncle, Simeon Lestrange, was a doctor are arguably equal reputation as her father, as he was the only practicing surgeon at the time with knowledge in using. Her ancestral family through her father's side were from. Like virtually all French Channeliers at the time, the Lestranges were one of the several hundred Frenchmen implanted onto the islands during the reign of.