Hinkson, Katharine (Tynan)

(1861-1931)

   Born in Dublin, the daughter of a farmer, she is better known by her maiden name of Katherine Tynan. A studious child with poor eyesight due to measles, her schooling at a convent school in Drogheda was shortened. Catholicism and Irish patriotism dominated her work as a poet and novelist. Her father paid for the publication of her first book of verse, Louise de la Vallière (1885). She went on to write more than 100 romantic novels and many poems. She married Albert Hinkson, a barrister and novelist, in 1883; she was widowed in 1919. She wrote the well-known song "All in The April Evening" popularized by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. She died at Wimbledon, Surrey. Her autobiographical publications: Twenty-five Years, 1923. The Middle Years, 1917. The Years of the Shadow, 1919. The Wandering Years, 1922. Memories, 1924. Some of her other poetry publications: Ballads and Lyrics, 1891. Irish Love-Songs, 1892. Cuckoo Songs, 1984. Poems, 1901. Innocencies, 1905. Collected Poems, 1930. Some of her poems: "Assumpta Est Maria," "Chanticleer," "Joining the Colours," "Shamrock Song," "The Angel of the Annunciation."

   Sources: A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. James H. Trott, ed. Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. Carmina Mariana: An English Anthology in Verse in Honour of or in Relation to The Blessed Virgin Mary. Orby Shipley, ed. Burns and Oates, 1894. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. 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 Home Book of Modern Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Henry Holt, 1953. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).