Humphreys, Eliza M. Y. (Mrs. W. Desmond)
(d. 1938)
Popular British novelist and Spiritualist who wrote under
the pseudonym Rita. She was a daughter of John Gilbert Gollan
of Inverness-shire, Scotland. She was educated in Sydney, Australia,
later returning to England. She was married twice; her
second husband was W. Desmond Humphreys of Ballin, county
Cork, Ireland.
She began writing at an early age and during her lifetime
published more than 60 popular novels as well as several nonfiction
works, including her own autobiographical Recollections
of a Literary Life (1936). She was a convinced Spiritualist and in
her book The Truth of Spiritualism (1918) she states that her interest
began in her girlhood, when, owing to my fathers interest
in the subject, we used to try for communications sitting at
a table with joined hands in dim light, and received messages
by means of the alphabet and raps . . . and my father used to
keep a written record of communications. She died January
1, 1938
