Dora d’Istria
Rumanian Author
1829 – 1888 A.D.

Dora d’Istria, pseudonym of Elina Ghika, a Rumanian author, born in Bucharest. She received a classical education, and had an extensive knowledge of modern languages and literature.

At the age of fifteen she commenced a translation of the Iliad, and not long afterward wrote several pieces for the theatre.

She married the Russian Prince Koltzoff-Massalsky.

Her first work, Monastic Life in the Eastern Church, alleges monasticism to be the principal obstacle  to civilization in Eastern and Southern Europe.

In 1864 she published Women, by a Woman which was translated into Russian, Italian and English. Her studies on Albanian poetry gave rise to a nationalistic and literary movement among the Albanians.

The Greek Chamber of Deputies, in April, 1868, named her “high citizeness [sic] of Greece.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.