Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Charlotte Elliott
-
Standard Name: Elliott, Charlotte
Birth Name: Charlotte Elliott
CE
was a prolific author in the mid nineteenth century of religious lyrics, many of them hymns, which circulated in periodicals, annuals, and collections. Her enduring reputation rests on the hymn Just as I am—without one plea (although My God and Father while I stray and Christian, seek not yet repose also remain well-known). Erik Routley
calls her [p]erhaps . . the most importantwoman hymn-writer . . . born in the eighteenth century.
Routley, Erik. Hymns and Human Life. John Murray, 1959.
207
Her hymns and poems depict the inevitability of human suffering, and embrace hardship and loss as roads to heaven. From around 1850 her works appeared in Anglican hymnals, and Just as I am—without one plea remains in the Lutheran Book of Worship.
Routley, Erik. Hymns and Human Life. John Murray, 1959.
207-8
Julian, John, editor. A Dictionary of Hymnology. Dover Publications, 1957.
328
Jones, Francis Arthur. Famous Hymns and Their Authors. Singing Tree Press, 1970.
217-8
Stulken, Marilyn Kay. Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship. Fortress Press, 1981.
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FRH
was an avid reader within limits: her selection of material was mostly dictated by her religious interests. After receiving a copy of a book about literary women she commented, The sad sketch of L. E. L.
Fictionalization
Frances Ridley Havergal
The twentieth-century novelist Barbara Pym
was planning at the time of her death to construct a novel around a Victorian hymn-writing woman like FRH
or Charlotte Elliott
—but it remained unwritten.
Pym, Barbara. A Very Private Eye. Holt, Hazel and Hilary PymEditors , Macmillan, 1984.