Coleridge, Mary Elizabeth

(1861-1907)

   The daughter of Arthur Duke Coleridge, grandnephew of Samuel Taylor, Coleridge was born in South Kensington, London. Steeped in literature and history from early childhood, at her own request she was taught Hebrew, Italian, French, German, and Greek. At twenty she began to write essays for the Monthly Packet, Merry England, and other periodicals. She also wrote a critical preface to Canon Dixon's Last Poems (1905). She devoted much time to teaching working women in her own home and gave lessons on English literature at the Working Women's College. Just before she died she finished a short Life of Holman Hunt, undertaken at the painter's request and published soon after her death. Two of her novels: The King with Two Faces, 1897 (a story based on Swedish history that would earn her the admiration of the Swedish Foreign Minister and would run to several editions), and The Lady on the Drawing-room Floor, 1906. Her main poetry publications: Fancy's Following, 1896. Fancy's Guerdon, 1897. Gathered Leaves, 1910. Some of her poems: "Affection," "Astrology," "Christ's Friends," "Deep Calleth unto Deep," "The Nurse's Lament," "Youth's Dying."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Collected Poems of Mary Coleridge. Theresa Whistler. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.