Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Adelaide Procter
-
Standard Name: Procter, Adelaide
Birth Name: Adelaide Anne Procter
Indexed Name: Adelaide Procter
Pseudonym: Mary Berwick
AP
's poetry, which appeared almost exclusively in Household Words and All the Year Round, was among the most popular of the Victorian era. An active mid-Victorian feminist, she was a member of the Langham Place Circle
and supporter of the Victoria Press
, for which she edited the showcase annual The Victoria Regia as well as contributing journalism and poetry to the English Woman's Journal. A convert to Catholicism, much of whose oeuvre is religious poetry (at times put to the service of social protest), she was allegedly the favourite writer of the Queen
and certainly one of the best-selling poets of her day. She died young, leaving only three short collections of her poetry.
As a member of the Langham Place GroupEF
counted most of the women activists of the day among her friends. Her far-flung circle of associates included Adelaide Procter
and Frances Power Cobbe
.
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany.
183, 16
Friends, Associates
Emily Faithfull
EF
suffered in various ways as a result of the trial. The sense that she had prevaricated, at the very least, alienated many of her associates on The English Woman's Journal, including Emily Davies
Intertextuality and Influence
Georgiana Fullerton
The novel's title foregrounds GF
's perhaps fantastic extrapolation from history, justified in the Introduction with the assertion that Truth and fiction are closely blended in this tale. . . . Those who are sometimes...
Matilda Hays
was a novelist, translator of George Sand
, editor, and contributor to periodicals. Her work spanned many genres and a variety of topics related to women's work and opportunities. One of her two...
Occupation
Matilda Hays
By 1861 MH
was a partner in the Victoria Press
. Her involvement, however, was short-lived, and she never invested any funds in the press.
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany.
52, 238n10
By 1860 rumours were apparently circulating about her...
Family and Intimate relationships
Matilda Hays
Through her involvement with the Langham Place Group, MH
met and became a friend of Adelaide Procter
. In 1858 Procter dedicated the First Series of Legends and Lyrics to Hays, using a quotation from...
death
Matilda Hays
Until recently scholars have assumed that she died about thirty years earlier than was in fact the case. Her local obituary mentioned her friendship with Procter
but did not mention that she was a writer.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Intertextuality and Influence
Matilda Hays
Woven into the novel is considerable commentary on the art, music, and literary productions of the day. Quotations are given from or allusions made to a wide range of authors including Tennyson
, Longfellow
(used...
Publishing
Anna Mary Howitt
During her time in Munich and her briefer time in Oberammergau, AMH
wrote articles which were published in the Ladies' Companion, the Athenæum, and Household Words. Her description of the Oberammergau passion...
Textual Production
Anna Mary Howitt
Another biographical project, never fulfilled, grew out of Christina Rossetti
's idea that AMH
would be a better person than herself to write a study of Adelaide Procter
.
Woodring, Carl Ray. Victorian Samplers: William and Mary Howitt. University of Kansas Press.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
35
Armstrong, Isobel et al., editors. Nineteenth-Century Women Poets. Clarendon Press.
401
Literary responses
Jean Ingelow
On 1 December 1863, Christina Rossetti
wrote to her publisher, Miss Procter
I am not afraid of; but Miss Ingelow . . . would be a formidable rival to most men, and to any woman...
