E. Œ. Somerville collection

Edith Anna Œnone Somerville (1858-1949) was born in Corfu but spent her childhood at Drishane House, Castletownshend, in West Cork, Ireland. She was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Henry Somerville (1824-1898) and his wife, Adelaide Eliza Coghill (1831-1895). Edith studied art in London, Dusseldorf, and in Paris, where she began her career as an illustrator. When she returned home in 1886, she met her cousin, Violet Florence Martin (1862-1915), and the two became life-long friends and began their partnership as writers. Their first venture was An Irish cousin published in 1889. Following the success of this book, they spent 1890-1893 touring Europe and writing travel books. Later they co-authored, under the pseudonym of Somerville and Ross (using the names Martin Ross and E. Œ Somerville), The Real Charlotte (1894), The Irish RM stories, Some experiences of an Irish R.M., and others. The partnership ended in December of 1915 when Violet Martin unexpectedly died of a brain tumor.

Somerville wrote on, publishing a memoir of Martin in 1917, Irish memories. She continued to publish under the joint authorship of Somerville and Martin, one author dead and one alive. She justified this in a two-fold manner, first by claiming that she was the amanuensis for Martin's spirit through the medium of automatic writing, and second, that she used notes on projected works and plots taken from their former correspondence - so the partnership continued.

Somerville most often did the illustrations for their books, but she is still better known as a writer then an artist, though she is regarded as an illustrator and painter of some note. In the twentieth century, Edith spent more time at oil painting, having one-person exhibitions in London and New York She was also a suffragist and an accomplished huntswoman became the first woman master of foxhounds in Ireland (1903-1908, 1912-1919).