VOYNICH, Ethel

Ethel Lilian Voynich (born Ethel Lilian Boole in County Cork, Ireland) was an English novelist, translator and composer. She was the youngest daughter of the famous mathematician George Boole and Mary Everest Boole. After the early death of her father in 1864, she grew up in Cork and Lancashire in relatively poor circumstances, until a small inheritance allowed her to study piano and composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin from 1882 to 1885. One of her teachers there was the Bach scholar Philipp Spitta. In the USA, she worked mainly as a composer, music teacher and devoted herself to extensive studies in music history.