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Janet Ross (1842—1927) was a travel writer, Tuscan cookbook author, writer on Tuscany, and memoirist. She was the granddaughter of Sarah Austin, a famous translator, and the daughter of Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon, who wrote the classic Letters from Egypt.

Janet Ann Duff Gordon grew up in a highly cultured atmosphere among England's leading intellectual and literary figures. In 1860 she married Henry Ross, who was age 40 to her age 18. In 1867 the Egyptian banking system underwent a crisis that diminished Henry Ross's investments and destroyed his banking career in Egypt. Henry and Janet moved to Italy, leaving their only child, a son Alick, in England. They acquired a villa near Florence. Janet Ross was a capable businesswoman who managed the estate well and sold its produce at an adequate profit. She was also an occasional dealer in art and a constant entertainer of famous visitors. She wrote for magazines such as Fraser's, Macmillan's, and Longman's. Her publishers encouraged her to select and publish some of her previous writings as Italian Sketches, which became a big success. She followed that book with her memoir Three Generations of English Women, which dealt with her grandmother and mother, as well as her great-grandmother, Susannah Cook Taylor. Janet Ross wrote the classic cookbook Leaves from Our Tuscan Kitchen, or, How to Cook Vegetables, which is a collection of recipes supplied by the Rosses' chef, Guiseppi Volpi, at their villa Poggio Gherardo. She also wrote Florentine Villas (1901) and other books related to Florence and Tuscany. In 1902 Henry Ross died. In 1912 Janet Ross published her autobiographical memoir The Fourth Generation. She died from cancer in 1927. The Rosses' Florentine villa was left to her niece LIna Waterfield and was destroyed in World War II.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Janet Ross", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0