Jean Ingelow
Popular English Poetress
1820 – 1897 A.D.

Jean Ingelow was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, England, in 1820, and died in July, 1897.

Her father was a banker and a man of superior intelligence. Her mother was of Scottish descent. Jean was a shy girl and attracted no attention until she was over thirty years of age. She then published a volume of poems which in her quiet way she had been preparing for some years. Their merit was at once recognized and the authoress became famous.

Three poems in this first volume were especially noteworthy: “Divided,” “High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire,” and “Songs of Seven.” The last name consists of seven poems portraying seven epochs in the life of woman.

Having been brought to public notice and there she demand for her work, she wrote others, Studies for stories, Poor mat, A Sister’s Bye-Hours, The Monitions of the Unseen, and Poems of Love and Childhood.

Within ten years after she came into public notice the sale of her poems in America, alone, reached 93,000 and her prose works a sale of 35,000.

Miss Ingelow made London her home after becoming a recognized authoress and, for several years, gave three times per week a “Copyright Dinner” to twelve needy persons who had recently come from the hospitals. This unique charity was a fitting channel for the expenditure of a part of her income from her books.

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Reference: Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.