Liggins, Joseph (1800-1872)

Joseph Liggins was believed by some to be the true identity behind the pen name 'George Eliot' when Scenes of Clerical Life was published in 1857. Residents of Nuneaton and the surrounding areas recognized the characters and stories as pieces of local history. Liggins, a poor journalist, was the only local writer they thought they knew. Liggins allowed his friends to think he'd authored Scenes of Clericsl Life and Adam Bede and that he was being cheated out of the royalties owed him by the books' publisher, Blackwood and Sons. The scandal over Liggins's supposed authorship was part of the reason Eliot finally revealed her identity to her friends after maintaining her anonymity for three years.