Dinah Maria Craik

Dinah Maria Craik (1826-1887) by Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914), 1887. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (20 April 1826 - 12 October 1887) was an English poet and novelist.

Life

Overview

Craik was the daughter of a Nonconformist minister of Irish descent. Beginning with stories for children, she developed into a prolific and popular novelist. Her best and most widely known book is John Halifax, Gentleman (1857), which had a wide popularity, and was translated into several languages. Others are The Head of the Family, Agatha's Husband, A Life for a Life, and Mistress and Maid. She also wrote some volumes of essays.

Youth and education

Craik was born Dinah Maria Mulock, to Dinah and Thomas Mulock, at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, where her father was the minister of a small congregation. Her childhood and early youth were much affected by his unsettled fortunes; but she obtained a good education from various quarters.

Career

Feeling conscious of a vocation for authorship, she came to London about 1846, much at the same time as 2 friends whose assistance was afterwards of the greatest service to her, Alexander Macmillan and Charles Edward Mudie. Introduced to Westland Marston, she rapidly made friends in London, and found great encouragement for the stories for the young to which she initially confined herself, of which "Cola Monti" (1849) was the best known.

Beginning with fiction for children, she advanced steadily until John Halifax, Gentleman (1857), placed her in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. A Life for a Life (1859), though inferior, maintained a high position, but she afterwards wrote little of importance except some very charming tales for children.

Thoroughly established in public favour as a successful authoress, Mulock took a cottage at Wildwood, North End, Hampstead, and became the ornament of a very extensive social circle. Her personal attractions were at this period of her life considerable, and her simple cordiality, staunch friendliness, and thorough goodness of heart perfected the fascination.

In 1864 Mulock married George Lillie-Craik, a partner in the house of Macmillan & Co.. She had no children.

Soon after her marriage she took up her residence at Shortlands, near Bromley, where she lived until her death. She had become very intimate with M. Guizot and his family, translated his Memoir of Barante and books by his daughter, Madame De Witt.

Several of her later publications were undisguisedly didactic essays, of which A Woman's Thoughts about Women and Sermons out of Church obtained most notice.

In her latter years she made tours through Cornwall and the north of Ireland, accounts of which were published, with copious illustrations, in 1884 and 1887 respectively. She died suddenly on 12 October 1887 from heart failure.

Writing

Her memory, both as a woman and as an authoress, will long be preserved by the virtues of which her writings were the expression. She was not a genius, and she does not express the ideals and aspirations of women of exceptional genius: but the tender and philanthropic, and at the same time energetic and practical, womanhood of ordinary life has never had a more sufficient representative.

Fiction

In 1849 she produced her 1st 3-volume novel, The Ogilvies, which obtained a great success. It was followed in 1850 by Olive, perhaps the most imaginative of her fictions. The Head of the Family (1851) and Agatha's Husband (1853), in which the authoress used with great effect her recollections of East Dorset, were perhaps better constructed and more effective as novels, but had hardly the same charm.

In 1857 appeared the work by which she will be principally remembered, John Halifax, Gentleman, a very noble presentation of the highest ideal of English middle-class life, which after nearly 40 years still stood boldly out from the works of the female writers of the period, George Eliot's excepted. In writing John Halifax, however, Mulock had practically delivered her message, and her next important work, A Life for a Life (1859) – though a very good novel more highly remunerated, and perhaps at the time more widely read, than John Halifax – was far from possessing the latter's enduring charm.

Mistress and Maid (1863), which originally appeared in Good Words, was inferior in every respect; and, though the lapse was partly retrieved in Christian's Mistake (1865), her subsequent novels were of no great account. The genuine passion which had upborne her early works of fiction had not unnaturally faded out of middle life, and had as naturally been replaced by an excess of the didactic element.

Her most remarkable novels, after those mentioned above, were Olive (1850), The Head of the Family (1851), and Agatha's Husband (1853). There is much passion and power in these early works, and all that Craik wrote was characterized by high principle and deep feeling. Some of the short stories in Avillion, and other tales also exhibit a fine imagination.

The delightful fairy story Alice Learmont was published in 1852, and numerous short stories contributed to periodicals, some displaying great imaginative power, were published in 1853 under the title of Avillion, and other tales. A similar collection, of lesser merit, appeared in 1857 under the title of Nothing New.

In her later period she returned to the fanciful tale which had so frequently employed her youth, and achieved a great success with The Little Lame Prince (1874), a charming story for the young.

Poetry

She had published poems in 1852, and in 1881 brought her pieces together under the title of Poems of Thirty Years: New and old. They are a woman's poems, tender, domestic, and sometimes enthusiastic, always genuine song, and the product of real feeling; some — such as "'Philip my King," verses addressed to her godson, Philip Bourke Marston, and "Douglas, Douglas, tender and true" — achieved a wide popularity.

Quotations

 
    Two hands upon the breast,
  And labour’s done;
    Two pale feet crossed in rest,
  The race is won.
          Now and Afterwards.

    Immortality alone could teach this mortal how to die.
          Looking Death in the Face.

    Never was owl more blind than a lover.
          Magnus and Morna.

    Silence sweeter is than speech.
          Magnus and Morna.

Publications

Poetry

• Poems. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1860.
• Thirty Years: Being poems old and new. London: Macmillan, 1880; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1881.

Novels

• The Ogilvies. (3 volumes), London: Chapman & Hall, 1849. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
• Olive: A novel. London: 1850; New York: Garland, 1975.
• The Head of the Family. (3 volumes), London: Chapman & Hall, 1852. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
• John Halifax, Gentleman. (3 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1856; New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1897.
  • (with introduction by Robin Denniston). London: Collins, 1954.
• A Hero: Philip's book. London: Addey, 1853; New York: Routledge, 1857.
• A Life for a Life. (3 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1859. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
• Mistress and Maid. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1863.
• Christian's Mistake. New York: Harper & Bros., 1865.
• A Noble Life. (2 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1866; (1 volume), New York: Harper & Bros., 1866.
• Two Marriages. New York: Harper & Bros., 1867.
• A Brave Lady. (3 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1870; (1 volume), New York: Harper & Bros., 1870.
• Agatha's Husband. New York: Harper & Bros., 1871.
• Hannah. New York: Harper & Bros., 1872.
• The Woman's Kingdom: A love story. (3 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1869; New York: Harper & Bros., 1872. Volume I, [Volume II], Volume III.
• My Mother and I: A love story. New York: Harper & Bros., 1874.
• The Laurel Bush: An old-fashioned love story. New York: Harper & Bros., 1876; London: Macmillan, 1890.
• Young Mrs. Jardine. London: Hurst & Blackett, [187?]; New York: Harper & Bros., 1880.
• Miss Tommy: A medieval romance. London: Macmillan, 1884.
• King Arthur: Not a love story. New York: Harper & Bros., 1886.

Short fiction

• Avillion, and other tales. (3 volumes), London: Smith, Elder, 1853. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III.
• Nothing New: Tales. (2 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1861. Volume I, Volume II.
• Romantic Tales. Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861; London: Smith, Elder, 1890.
• Domestic Stories. Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1862.
• The Unkind Word, and other stories. (2 volumes), London: Hurst & Blackett, 1870; (1 volume), Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.. Volume I, Volume II.

Non-fiction

• A Woman's Thoughts About Women. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1858; Memphis, TN: General Books, 2009.
• Fair France: Impressions of a traveller. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1871; New York: Harper & Bros., 1871.
• Sermons Out of Church. New York: Harper & Bros., 1875; London: Hurst & Blackett, 1882; New York: Harper & Bros., 1882.
• Plain Speaking.
• An Unsentimental Journey Through Cornwall. London: Macmillan, 1884.
• An Unknown Country. New York: Harper & Bros., 1887.
• Concerning Men, and other papers. London: Macmillan, 1888.

Juvenile

• Bread Upon the Waters: A governess's life. London: Governesses' Benevolent Institution, 1852; New York: Harper & Bros., 1859.
• One Year: A child's book in prose and verse. Cambridge, UK: Macmillan, 1860.
• Studies from Life. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1861.
• Cola Monti: A tale for boys. London: Dean, 1866.\
• Little Sunshine's Holiday: A picture from life. New York: Harper & Bros., 1871.
• His Little Mother, and other tales and sketches. New York: Harper & Bros., 1881.
• The Adventures of a Brownie, As Told to my child. Chicago: H. Altemus, 1898
  • New York: Macmillan, 1924.
• The Little Lame Prince and his travelling cloak. New York & London: Rand McNally, 1909; Cleveland, OH: World, 1948.
• The Fairy Book: The most popular fairy tales, selected and rendered anew. New York: Harper & Bros., 1922.
• The Little Lame Prince / The Adventures of a Brownie. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1948.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Magazines

Tales and sketches

• The Man in Green. By D. M. M. — 1846 Jul 11, in The Mirror Vol.1, pp.20-23
• Beranger and his Poems. By D. M. M. — 1846 Aug 1, in The Mirror Vol.1, pp.79-80
• The Poets of the People. I. Allan Ramsay. By D. M. M. — 1846 Aug 15, in The Mirror Vol.1, pp.109-111
• The Poets of the People. II. Robert Burns. By D. M. M. — 1846 Sep 19, in The Mirror Vol.1, pp.189-190
• The Emigrant's Wives. A Passage from Real Life. Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Sep 26, in The Mirror Vol.1, pp.203-208
• The Story of Erminia. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1847 May, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée Vol.26, pp.284-286
• Elspeth Sutherland. (A Tale.) By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1847 Jun, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée Vol.26, pp.327-332
• Great and Little Heroines. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1847 Sep, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée Vol.27, pp.140-144
• A Sketch of Domestic Life. (From the German of Heinrich Zebokke.) Signed D.M.M. — 1847 Sep 11, 18, 25, in Sharpe's London Magazine Vol.4, pp.315-317, 332-334, 342-344
• The Peace-Maker. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1848 Feb, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée Vol.28, pp.66-71
• Poets of the People—Robert Bloomfield. Signed D. M. M. — 1848 Mar, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblée Vol.28, pp.172-173
• A Meditation for the Times. Signed D. M. M. — 1855 Feb, in Hogg's Instructor Vol.4, p.129
• Running Away. A Schoolmaster's Story. Signed Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." — 1868 Dec, in Our Young Folks Vol.4, Boston, pp. 734–743
• In the Happy Valley. Signed Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." — 1869 Jul, in Our Young Folks Vol.5, Boston, pp. 444–449
• Le Boeuf Gras. Signed Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." — 1869 Dec, in Our Young Folks Vol.5, Boston, pp. 825–831
• In Bolton Woods. Signed Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." — 1871 Jan, in Our Young Folks Vol.7, Boston, pp. 42–48

The following all appeared in periodicals before the books:

• Little Lizzie and the Fairies; Sunny Hair's Dream; The Young Ship-Carver; Arndt's Night Underground — in The Playmate. A Pleasant Companion for Spare Hours, 1847-48.
• A Family in Love, as A Family on the Wing, in Chambers's Journal, 1856 May 3
• A Garden Party, in Good Cheer, 1867 Christmas
• His Little Mother, in The Graphic, Oct 5-19 1878
• Poor Prin. A True Story, in The Graphic, Oct 11 1879
• An Island of the Blest, in The Sunday Magazine, 1880
• My Sister’s Grapes, in Harper’s Young People, New York, 1880 Dec 14, and in Life and Work, 1881 Aug
• A Ruined Palace, in The Sunday Magazine, 1881
• How She Told a Lie, in The Sunday Magazine, 1881
• A City at Play, and The First Sunday at Lent were incorporated in the book: Fair France. Impressions of a Traveller, as Chapters 3 & 4 respectively.

Early Poems

• Song of the Hours. Signed D. M. M. — 1841 Oct, in The Dublin University Magazine Vol.18, pp. 442–443
• Verses. By D. M. M. — 1844, in Friendship's Offering of Sentiment and Mirth, pp. 216–217
• A March Song. Signed D. M. M. — 1844 Apr, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.20, p. 245
• Songs for Stray Airs—No. I. The Mourner's Hope of Immortality. (A Funeral Hymn.) Signed D. M. M. — 1844 Apr, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.20, p. 245
• Songs for Stray Airs—No. II. The Shepherd's Wife. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 May, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.20, p. 275
• Songs for Stray Airs—No. III. Carolans War-Cry. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 Jun, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.20, p. 335
• "Forgive One Another." By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 Jun, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.20, p. 346
• Songs for Stray Airs—No. IV. A Barcarole. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 Jul, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.21, p. 32
• Good Seed. Signed D. M. M. — 1845 Jul 5, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.4, p. 16
• Songs for Stray Airs—No. V. Caoinne Over an Irish Chieftain. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 Aug, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.21, p. 76
• The Country Sabbath. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 Aug, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.21, p. 101
• Songs for Stray Airs—No. VI. A Fire-Side Song. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1844 Sep, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.21, p. 168
• The Six Maidens. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1845 Jan, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.22, pp. 26–27
• England's Welcome to American Genius. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1845 Apr, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.21, p. 200
• The Garden in the Churchyard. Signed D. M. M. — 1845 Sep 20, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.4, p. 192
• The Motherless Children. Addressed to the Infants left by Madame Leontine Genoude. (From the French of De Lamartine.) Signed D. M. M. — 1845 Oct 18, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.4, p. 256
• The Poet's Mission. Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Jan 3, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 16
• Prayers for all Men. (From "Les Feuilles d'Automne" of Victor Hugo.) Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Jan 31, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 80
• "Hateful Spring!" (From the "Chansons" of Beranger.) Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Feb 7, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 96
• The Maiden and the Rose. (From the French of Chateaubriand.) Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Mar 7, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 160
• A Greek Allegory. Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Mar 28, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 208
• The Troubadour and his Swallow. (From the French.) Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Apr 11, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 240
• A Hymn. (From Lamartine's "Harmonies Poètiques.") Signed D. M. M. — 1846 May 30, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.5, p. 352
• The Water-Lily. Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Jul 18, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.6, p. 48
• A Mother's Resignation. Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Jul 25, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.6, p. 64
• The Chrysanthemum. Signed D. M. M. — 1846 Dec 26, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.6, p. 416
• Happiness. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Jan 30, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.7, p. 80
• Robert Bruce Crowned by the Countess of Buchan. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Feb 13, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.7, p. 112
• The Cry of the Earth. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 May 22, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.7, p. 336
• On the Portrait of Lady Rachel Russell. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1847 Jul, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.27, frontispice
• An Answer. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Jul, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.27, p. 22
• The Golden Rose. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Jul 10, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.8, p. 32
• Growing Old Together. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Aug 21, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.8, p. 128
• Memory. Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Oct 30, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal New Series Vol.8, p. 288
• The Tax-Gatherers. (From the French of Béranger.) Signed D. M. M. — 1847 Nov, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.27, p. 265
• The Dream of the Orphan. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1847, in Orphanhood. Free-will offerings to the Fatherless, 81–82.
• Dante's Meeting with Casello in Purgatory. (From "Il Purgatorio"—Canto II.) Signed D. M.M. — 1848 Jan, in The New Monthly Belle Assemblee Vol.28, 25–26.
• The African Slave; The Greek Mother; The Battle of Langsyde; and three other unknown poems. By Dinah Maria Mulock — 1848 Dec, in THE DRAWING-ROOM TABLE-BOOK. An Annual for Christmas and the New Year, pp. 13, 34, 76.
• Militia Volunteers. Signed D. M. M. — 1855 Mar, in Hogg's Instructor Vol.4, 240.

A Silly Song (Dinah Maria Mulock Craik Poem)

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Garnett, Richard (1894) "Mulock, Dinah Maria" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 39 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 280-281 . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 4, 2017.

External links

Poems

• "The Human Temple"
• "Semper Fidelis"
• Dinah Maria Craik at the Poetry Foundation
• Craik in A Victorian Anthology: "Philip, My King," "Too Late"
• Craik, Dinah Maria (1826-1887) (4 poems) at Representative Poetry Online
• Dinah Maria Mulock Craik at PoemHunter (139 poems)

Prose

• Children's stories(full text)

Quotes

• Did George Eliot write this? - 2 quotations from Craik commonly misattributed to George Eliot

Books

• Works by Dinah Craik at Project Gutenberg
• Works of Craik at the Victorian Women Writers Project, Indiana University
• Dinah Maria Mulock Craik at Amazon.com
• Dinah Maria Mulock Craik at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Works by or about Dinah Maria Craik in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Audio /video

• Dinah Maria Craik at YouTube

About

• Craik, Dinah Maria in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Dinah Craik in the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales.
• Dinah Craik at "Literary Heritage"
• Dinah Mulock Craik at the Victorian Web

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Mulock, Dinah Maria