A celebrity sensation for her best-selling poetry and the erotic scandal that is inextricable from her fame, Letitia Landon, better known as L. E. L., enjoyed a wide and appreciative audience for her poetry and literary essays. Less known to her readers and still often unsung today was her periodical editing work and anonymous reviewing, especially for the Literary Gazette, edited by Landon's literary mentor and eventual lover, William Jerdan. In addition, Landon made momentous contributions to the popular early-Victorian gift annuals, authoring and editing entire volumes of some of the more successful and contributing poetry to many others. Landon first began writing poetry for her own enjoyment, but when her family found itself in financial crisis, Landon's mother showed some poems to Jerdan, who lived nearby. First publishing only in the Literary Gazette, Landon brought out her debut volume of poetry, The Fate of Adelaide, A Swiss Romantic Tale; and Other Poems in 1821. Though only moderately successful, this volume was soon followed by The Improvisatrice; and Other Poems (1824), which quickly went into several editions. This success coupled with the death of her father the same year placed Landon as the main financial support for both her mother and her brother. She continued regular contributions to the Literary Gazette and other periodicals, especially the New Monthly Magazine, meanwhile bringing out a number of other poetry volumes, including The Troubadour; Catalogue of Pictures, and Historical Sketches (1825), The Golden Violet, with its Tales of Romance and Chivalry; and Other Poems (1827), The Venetian Bracelet, The Lost Pleiad, A History of the Lyre, and Other Poems (1829), and The Vow of the Peacock, and Other Poems (1835). Landon also authored three novels, Romance and Reality (1831), Francesca Carrara (1834), and Ethel Churchill; or The Two Brides (1837). She wrote a play, several translations, and some children’s literature as well. Landon died rather mysteriously shortly after her marriage to George Maclean, governor of the Cape Coast settlement on the African Gold Coast. The inquest officially assigned the cause of death to accidental prussic acid poisoning, but Landon’s romantic public image and the stormy course of her relationship with Maclean have left doubts about the verdict to this day.